An Efficient Multicast Routing in Wireless Multi-hop Mesh Networks

In order that multicast routing characteristics are reflected under wireless environments, multicast routing metric is required for qualifying the multicast tree cost in wireless multi-hop mesh networks. 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 the 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. The proposed wireless multicast routing shows a higher delivery ratio and a lower average delay than the multicast routing minimizing the transmission count. In comparison with other multicast routings, simulation results show that the proposed multicast heuristic maximizing the multicast tree transmission ratio constructs a cost-effective multicast tree in terms of its delivery ratio, average delay, and required network resources.