An Implicit Cluster-based Overlay Multicast Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Mobility patterns of mobile ad hoc networks lead to update multicast routing information based on network multicasting. Thus, many control messages are likely to be generated, and bandwidth of wireless media and limited battery power of mobile nodes are inefficiently consumed. To improve the shortcomings, overlay multicast protocols on application layer has been proposed; however, some of them have another shortcoming which is that the number of unnecessary data forwarding among multicast members increases. Additionally, they hardly support network scalability. Thus, this paper proposes an implicit cluster-based overlay multicast protocol exploiting tree division (ICOM-TD) for mobile ad hoc networks to improve their shortcomings. Finally, we evaluate performance of ICOM-TD through numerical analysis about complexity of multicast routing and simulation in comparison with existing multicast mechanisms for mobile ad hoc networks.