Link Stability Evaluation and Stability Based Multicast Routing Protocol in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile ad hoc networks are more flexible than tradition networks since they do not require fixed infrastructure and allow all nodes move in a random trajectory, which leads frequent rerouting and degrades network performance. A better routing protocol can provide a more stable route to adapt to dynamic topology. In this paper, we propose a novel stability evaluation metric which is based on the relative mobility of each node pairs via sampling the received power levels. The metric is subsequently used as the routing standard in our proposed stability-based multicast routing protocol, termed as SMR, which can create bi-directional shared multicast trees composed of stable paths to decrease the links disconnections and improve network performance. Simulation results show the advantages of the SMR over other approaches in terms of the packet delivery ratio, routing packet overhead and multicast route lifetime.