Cost-Effective Multicast Routings in Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

In order to reflect multicast routing characteristics in wireless mesh networks, multicast routing metric is required for qualifying the multicast tree cost under wireless environments. We design a new multicast routing metric called the multicast-tree transmission ratio which quantifies the multicast tree cost, considering the link quality of wireless multicast channels as well as wireless multicast advantage. The multicast-tree transmission ratio represents the product of the multicast transmission ratios of all nodes in the constructed multicast tree. This paper proposes a wireless multicast routing which constructs the multicast tree by maximizing the multicast-tree transmission ratio in wireless mesh networks and extends the multicast routing in mesh networks with multiple gateways. The proposed wireless multicast routings show a higher delivery ratio and a lower average delay than the multicast routing minimizing the forwarding nodes in its multicast tree. In comparison with other multicast routings, simulation results show that the proposed multicast heuristics maximizing the multicast tree transmission ratio construct a cost-effective multicast tree in terms of its delivery ratio, average delay, and required network resources.