This chapter presents an exhaustive survey on the different categories of topology-based multicast routing protocols that have been proposed for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Due to the inherent broadcast nature of the wireless medium, one-to-many multicast communications are characteristic of most of the MANET applications. MANET multicast routing protocols are primarily classified as tree-based and mesh-based protocols depending on the underlying topology used for communication. Tree-based protocols are further classified to source-tree based and shared-tree based depending on whether the tree is rooted at the multicast source or a common node. Further, there are several sub-categories of source-tree based and shared-tree based multicast routing protocols. The mesh-based multicast protocols are primarily categorized to source-initiated and receiver-initiated protocols depending on which entity (the source node or the receiver nodes) initiates the mesh formation. The book chapter explains in detail the working of eleven different multicast routing protocols, covering all of the sub-categories of tree-based and mesh-based routing protocols.
Multicast Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: A Comparative Survey and Taxonomy
