Improving energy efficiency for multicasting in wireless ad-hoc networks with adaptive antennas

We consider the performance of various algorithms to maximize the lifetime of a given multicast connection in wireless networks that use directional antennas and have limited energy resources. Based on the IMILP (mixed integer linear programming) formulation [S. Guo et al, 2005], which provides a globally optimal solution to this problem for a small or medium network, we can evaluate the realistic performance of different heuristic algorithms. Experimental results show that minimum total power consumption does not guarantee maximum lifetime for either broadcasting or multicasting, and the algorithms S-DPMT and D-DPMT [S. Guo et al, 2004] outperform other energy-aware multicast algorithms significantly in terms of multicast lifetime.