Multicasting in mobile backbone based ad hoc wireless networks

The synthesis of efficient and scalable multicasting schemes for mobile ad hoc networks is a challenging task. Multicast protocols typically construct a tree or mesh structure to distribute messages to multicast group members. Generally, these implementations impose scalability and efficiency limitations since they employ protocols that are based on a flat-topology networking architecture. We present three multicast algorithms that employ a dynamically synthesized mobile backbone network (MBN) to achieve efficient message distribution among members of multicast groups. Using the synthesized backbone network (BNet), we have a hierarchical networking architecture that enables a multicast protocol to achieve low control overhead and high transmission efficiency. The multicast algorithms under investigation are: (1) BNet flooding multicast algorithm (BFMA); (2) shared backbone multicast subnetwork (SBMS); (3) hybrid multicast algorithm (HMA). Our simulation and mathematical analysis results demonstrate the enhanced performance achieved by these MBN-based multicast algorithms when compared to ODMRP, and provide performance comparisons for these algorithms