DRMR: Dynamic-Ring-Based Multicast Routing Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks

Recently a number of multicast routing protocols for ad hoc networks have been proposed, however, most of them do not provide proper tradeoffs between effectiveness, efficiency and scalability. In this paper, a novel multicast routing protocol is presented for ad hoc networks. The protocol, termed as dynamic-ring-based multicast routing protocol (DRMR), uses the concept of dynamic ring whose radius can be adjusted dynamically and DRMR configures this type of ring for all group member nodes. According to the principle of zone routing, two nodes whose rings overlap can create route to each other, thus, when the ring graph composed of all rings is connected, each member node has one or more routes to others. DRMR uses the method of expanding ring search (ERS) to maintain the connected ring graph, and also can decrease the radius of the ring to reduce the overhead. The performances of DRMR were simulated and evaluated with NS2, and results show that DRMR has a high data packet delivery ratio, low control overhead and good scalability.