Improving delivery ratios for application layer multicast in mobile ad hoc networks

Delivering multicast data using application layer approaches offers different advantages, as group members communicate using so-called overlay networks. These consist of a multicast group's members connected by unicast tunnels. Since existing approaches for application layer delivery of multicast data in mobile ad hoc networks (short MANETs) only deal with routing but not with error recovery, this paper evaluates tailored mechanisms for handling packet losses and congested networks. Although illustrated at the example of a specific protocol, the mechanisms may be applied to arbitrary overlays. This paper also investigates how application layer functionality based on overlay networks can turn existing multicast routing protocols (like ODMRP, M-AODV,…) into (almost) reliable transport protocols.