A time slot assignment scheme for multi-path QoS multicast routing in mobile ad hoc networks

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a communication group which is formed by wireless mobile hosts without any established infrastructure or centralized control. In this paper, a multi-path QoS multicast routing (MQMR) protocol for MANETs is proposed. Our scheme is dynamic time slot control by using multi-path tree (or uni-path tree) to meet the bandwidth requirements of a call. The final multi-path QoS multicast tree meets the QoS requirements, and the aggregate bandwidth of the paths meet the bandwidth requirements of a call. To avoid the hidden terminal or insufficient bandwidth in the bandwidth reservation process, each destination uses a decision rule. Moreover, a bandwidth reservation scheme is used for selecting the reserved time slots on each node in a multi-path QoS multicast tree. Simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of MQMR in reducing network blockings and improving call success ratio.