On the Scalability and Reliability of Network Sender Multicast Routing Protocol (NSMRP)

Mobile ad hoc network (MANETs) is a collection of nodes that exchange data over wireless paths. The nodes in this network are free to move at any time, therefore network topology changes in unpredictable way. Since there is no fixed infrastructure support in MANETs, each node functions as a host and a router. Designing a reliable and scalable routing protocol for MANETs is a challenging task due to mobility and the continuous change in the topology. In this paper the reliability and scalability of Network Sender Multicast Routing Protocol (NSMRP) is studied by finding the effect of increasing the number of groups under different mobility scenarios on the data packet delivery ratio and the control packet overhead. The simulation results show that when the number of groups increases the data packet delivery ratio improves while the control packet overhead continues to decrease.