ABAM: on-demand associativity-based multicast routing for ad hoc mobile networks

Multicast has emerged as a very desirable feature in communication networks. With multicast, data can be distributed to multiple recipients in an efficient and economical manner. We present a performance evaluation of a novel multicast routing strategy for a mobile ad hoc network environment, which is characterized by a highly-dynamic topology with constrained bandwidth and limited power. The associativity-based ad hoc multicast (ABAM) protocol establishes multicast session on demand and utilizes an association stability concept, which is introduced in the ABR protocol for mobile ad hoc unicast routing. The performance of ABAM is simulated and compared with a flooding-based multicast routing protocol. The results show impressive throughput and very low communication overhead.