An Efficient Approach to Multicast Routing with Backup Paths in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

As the popularity of the Internet grows, applications that require the multicast feature become more general. Existing tree-based multicasting protocols focus on building a multicast tree to ease the data forwarding overhead, but the frequent reconstruction of the multicast tree will deteriorate the performance. In this paper, we proposed a new protocol, Multicast Routing Protocol with Backup Path (MRP-BP), to enhance packet delivery ratio in two ways. One is to use the backup paths to provide instant link recovery and the other is to construct a multicast tree with better routing efficiency by using the information of Medium nodes. While the former intends to shorten the link recovery delay and to improve the packet delivery ratio, the later aims to minimize the influence of packet delivery failure on the members of a multicast group. Simulation results show that the backup paths are useful for multicast tree construction and route recovery.