An Agent-Based Scheme for Efficient Multicast Application in Mobile Networks

摘要

Mobile communication is playing an increasing role in our lives. Mobile users expect similar kinds of applications to static ones. Multicast not only brings attractive applications, but also has the benefit of saving scarce bandwidth in wireless environment. In order to achieve efficient multicast in mobile networks, we propose an agent-based scheme called Mobile Multicast with Fast Handoff and Hierarchical Architecture (FHMM). This scheme introduces two kinds of agents: Multicast Agent (MA) and Domain Multicast Agent (DMA). Through the cooperation between MAs in adjacent networks, FHMM accomplishes fast multicast handoff. And through the use of DMA, FHMM achieves a hierarchical mobile multicast architecture which can isolate the local movement from outside and improve the stability of the main multicast delivery tree. The simulation results show that FHMM is effective with low packet loss rate, high multicast packet delivery efficiency and little multicast maintenance overhead.