Elsevier

Ad Hoc Networks

Volume 7, Issue 6, August 2009, Pages 1150-1155
Ad Hoc Networks

A review and performance comparison of QoS multicast routing protocols for MANETs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2008.10.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Nowadays supporting real-time and multimedia applications have become more essential for the users of mobile ad-hoc networks. QoS multicast routing protocols provide a mechanism to establish a multicast session. Considering the fact that a number of different parameters affect on the quality of service, each of the existing protocols has dealt with a particular type of those parameters. In this paper, an overview of QoS multicast protocols which have been proposed in the past literatures are presented. In addition, the performances of these protocols are compared with respect to performance metrics.

Introduction

A mobile ad-hoc Network (MANET) is a network of mobile nodes that communicate through wireless links. Self-creation, self-configuration and self-administration are the most important features of these networks [1].

Each node can work as a host or a router in every time. If two nodes are placed at the range of their radio waves, they are able to communicate; otherwise, intercommunication is occurred through multi hops of other nodes. Because of moving nodes in the MANET, topology can be changed rapidly and unpredictably; therefore, related protocols must adapt themselves with these features. Fast developments of MANETs make them suitable for emergency conditions and military combats [2].

In order to design a MANET, various aspects can be taken into account which one is quality of service (QoS) routing for a multicast session. In this paper, we intend to review the current protocols and make some performance comparisons of them. A similar study has been performed for multicast routing in [3] and for unicast routing in [4], [5], [6], but this has not been made yet for QoS multicast routing.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows: in Section 2, performance metrics for multicast routing protocols are presented. Seven QoS multicast routing protocols are proposed in Section 3, a comparison and evaluation of proposed protocols are made in Section 4 and finally Section 5 includes conclusion and some new suggestions.

Section snippets

Performance metrics of routing protocols in MANET

Generally, there are four main metrics presented in [7] as parameters of QoS which are reliability, delay, jitter, and bandwidth. In practice, delay, jitter, throughput, and utilization are used as QoS metrics. However, with respect to special features of ad hoc networks, there are other metrics for evaluating a routing protocol in MANET. In Ref. [1], robustness is utilized as a metric in addition to previous metrics. In Ref. [8], performance metrics are classified to qualitative and

QoS multicast routing protocols

Routing protocols could be classified according to different aspects. They can be classified into three groups with respect to how they manage their routing information namely global/proactive, on-demand/reactive and hybrid ones. In proactive routing protocols, routes to all destinations (or parts of the network) are determined at the start up and are maintained by using a periodic route update process. In reactive protocols, routes are determined whenever they are required by the source

Evaluation and comparison

QoS multicast routing protocols which are studied in this paper, can be compared with regards to different attributes:

  • a.

    As we mentioned earlier, protocols can be classified with respect to the range of their operation, into three groups: complete, multilayer and sublayer.

  • b.

    Most of protocols rely on reservation idea to provide QoS except for the FQM which uses a hybrid scheme of differentiated and integrated services.

  • c.

    Because of the mobility feature of MANETs, most of protocols use reactive scheme to

Conclusion and suggestion

In this paper, operation of seven types of QoS multicast routing protocols for MANET have been studied. Each method has considered some of the QoS metrics. According to bandwidth limitations in MANET, the bandwidth criteria have been concerned in all methods, whereas the techniques of providing them might be different. Because most of protocols have been designed for medium network sizes, they have a flat structure and operate on-demand of requests. Although, in this way, they provide more

Acknowledgements

I thank Dr. T.C. Wan, University of Science, Malaysia and Dr. H. Razavi, Ferdowsi University of Mashad, for helpful comments and suggestions.

Mina Masoudifar received her M.S. degree in computer engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashad, Iran in March 1999 and her B.S. degree in computer engineering from Sharif University, Iran in February 1997. Her research interests include computer networking, mobile computing and QoS routing.

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Mina Masoudifar received her M.S. degree in computer engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashad, Iran in March 1999 and her B.S. degree in computer engineering from Sharif University, Iran in February 1997. Her research interests include computer networking, mobile computing and QoS routing.

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