Multicast Routing for Ad Hoc Networks with a Multiclass Scheme for Quality of Service

As multimediaand group-oriented computing becomes increasingly popular for the users of wireless mobile networks, the importance of features like quality of service (QoS) and multicasting support grows. Ad hoc networks can provide users with the mobility they demand, if efficient QoS multicasting strategies are developed. The ad hoc QoS multicasting (AQM) protocol achieves multicasting efficiency by tracking resource availability within a node’s neighbourhood and announces it at session initiation. When nodes join a session of a certain QoS class, this information is updated and used to select the most appropriate routes. AQM is compared to a non-QoS scheme with emphasis on service satisfaction of members and sessions in an environment with multiple service classes. By applying QoS restrictions, AQM improves the multicasting efficiency for members and sessions. The results show that QoS is essential for and applicable to multicast routing in ad hoc networks.