COMPARISON OF MULTICAST ROUTING PROTOCOLS FOR AD HOC NETWORKS

Abstract

An ad hoc network is a multi-hop wireless network formed by a collection of mobile nodes without the intervention of fixed infrastructure or centralized administration. Due to the limited transmission range of wireless network interfaces, multiple network hops may be needed for one node to exchange data with another across the network. A sequence of neighbor nodes from a source to a destination form a path and intermediate mobile hosts relay packets in a store-and-forward mode. The advent of ubiquitous computing and the proliferation of portable computing devices have raised the importance of mobile and wireless networking. Unique characteristics of an ad hoc network raise several requirements for the routing protocol design: limited bandwidth and mobility require that ad hoc routing protocols be robust, simple, and energy conserving. A major challenge lies in adapting multicast communication to environment where mobility is unlimited and failures are frequent. Multicast provides an efficient way of disseminating data from a sender to a group of receivers. This thesis investigates the performance of Neighbor Supporting Multicast Routing Protocol (NSMP) aimed specifically at fully Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET), and compares this with another multicast routing protocol called On Demand Multicast Routing Protocol (ODMRP). In particular the flooding of query packet is avoided giving rise to some improvement.