Multicast operation of the ad-hoc on-demand distance vector routing protocol
E.M. Royer, Charles E. Perkins · 1999
An ad-hoc network is the cooperative engagement of a collection of (typically wireless) mobile nodes without the required intervention of any centralized access point or existing infrastructure.To provide optimal communication ability, a routing protocol for such a dynamic self-starting network must be capable of unicast, broadcast, and multicast.In this paper we extend Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV), an algorithm for the operation of such ad-hoc networks, to offer novel multicast capabilities which follow naturally from the way AODV establishes unicast routes.AODV builds multicast trees as needed (i.e., on-demand) to connect multicast group members.Control of the multicast tree is distributed so that there is no single point of failure.AODV provides loop-free routes for both unicast and multicast, even while repairing broken links.We include an evaluation methodology and simulation results to validate the correct and efficient operation of the AODV algorithm.