Stable energy-efficient-lifetime-aware multicast routing with mobility prediction for mobile ad hoc and sensor networks

A mobile ad hoc sensor network consists of a number of sensors spread in a geographical area. Each sensor is capable of mobile communication and has some level of intelligence to process signals and to transmit data. Existing multicast routing protocols fail in dynamic mobile ad hoc sensor networks, since node mobility causes conventionally constructed multicast paths to rapidly become obsolete. Mobility prediction is one of the keys to successful design of efficient protocols finding stable and reliable routes in mobile ad hoc sensor networks. In this paper, a new metric is introduced to measure the stability of paths which is a function of transmission power of forwarding nodes and expected length of links. The probability distribution of communication links length is approximated to minimize the effects of topological changes while trying to support more stable routes. Further, a mixed integer programming model is presented which can be used to find the optimal solution of the minimum-energy-maximum-lifetime multicast routing problem with stable paths in mobile ad hoc sensor networks. Based on this model, a source-initiated distributed multicast routing algorithm is proposed to construct minimum-energy-consumption, maximum-lifetime multicast trees. This algorithm, selects the transmission power level of forwarding nodes in such a way that certain stability requirements are met, while minimizing total energy and lifetime cost. This paper, also studies the performance of proposed routing algorithm via extensive simulation experiments which support our approach.