A New CMAC-Based Local Recovery Approach to Achieve Reliable Multicast in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have gained considerable attention in the recent years due to fast deployment, easy maintenance and low upfront investment compared with traditional wireless networks. Since WMNs are typically used as wireless backbones, they have the nature that the wireless communication is not stable. Hence, it is significant to protect them against link or node failures. Distribution of data using multicast in an unreliable network does not guarantee reliable delivery, which is the prime requirement for many important applications. This paper focuses on designing and implementing an effective reliable multicast protocol called HRTMM based on shortest path tree algorithms (SPTs). For first time in this paper, we use CMAC neural network to design and implement an error or disconnection occurrence prediction mechanism in our proposed protocol that it can recover the unreliable nodes/routes before fault or disconnection happens and consequently restore the network to a consistent state with more reliability. We also discuss a novel hybrid local recovery procedure based on mentioned disconnection prediction method. The HRTMM combines congestion and error control with localized recovery to prevent or recover the different types of losses that may occur in WMNs. Our simulation results show that the HRTMM protocol functions efficiently and reliably for WMNs.