Energy Consumption in Multicast Protocols for Static Ad Hoc Networks

摘要

In static ad hoc networks, energy performance is as important as general performance since it directly affects the network operation time in the wireless environment. This paper evaluates the multicast protocols for static ad hoc networks in terms of energy consumption, proposes analytical models of energy performance in multicast protocols, and validates the models using computer simulation. In general, multicast protocols can be categorized into tree-based and mesh-based multicast. Tree-based protocols are more energy efficient than mesh-based ones, while the latter are more robust to link failure. According to the proposed analytical models, mesh-based multicast consumes around (f+ 1)/2 times more energy than tree-based multicast, where f is average node connectivity. It is mainly due to broadcast-based flooding within the mesh. Our simulation study shows the models and simulation results are consistent with each other.