Energy aware multicast routing in mobile ad-hoc networks using NS-2

The nodes in MANET are constrained with limited power for their vital operations since the connectivity of the network will go down as soon as node energy gets exhausted. Node failures due to power constraints cause system failures and hence minimizes end-to-end connectivity in the network. In recent years, majority of research on multicast routing protocols in MANET focus upon the mechanisms to build energy efficient multicast routes based upon shortest paths and energy consumption for various transactions at node level. In this paper, we propose an Energy Aware Multicast Routing Protocol (EAMRP) which maximizes end-to-end connectivity in the network and minimizes faults at link or/and node level. A set of multiple paths are established from source to multicast destinations using energy efficient neighbor node selection mechanism. Our scheme operates in following phases. (1) Computation of residual energy of a node using node energy model. (2) Pruning the nodes having residual energy less than threshold value. (3) Discovery of multiple routes to the destination using request and reply packets, (4) Selection of stable routes by considering residual energy of the nodes. (5) Route maintenance for route breaks and node failures due to energy drain and (6) Simulation analysis for various parameters such as Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), and end-to-end delay has been performed. We observe that EAMRP outperforms the energy efficient AODV and AOMDV protocols for various performance Parameters.