Distributed dynamic mobile multicast

Traditional mobile multicast schemes have either high multicast tree reconfiguration cost or high packet delivery cost. The former affects service disruption time while the latter affects packet delivery delay. Although existing region-based mobile multicast schemes offer a trade-off between two costs to some extent, most of them do not determine the size of the service range, which is critical to network performance. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, called Distributed Dynamic Mobile Multicast (D2M2D2M2), to dynamically determine the optimal service range according to the mobility and service characteristics of a user. We derive an analytical model to formulate the costs of multicast tree reconfiguration and multicast packet delivery. The model is based on a Markov chain that analyzes a mobile node’s movement in a 2D mesh network. As the complexity of computing steady probability is high, we aggregate the Markov states by leveraging mobility symmetry. Simulation shows that the network performance is enhanced through D2M2D2M2.

Research highlights
► We propose an analytical model to formulate the cost of multicast tree reconfiguration and multicast packet delivery.
► We apply a Markov chain to analyze the mobility of MNs in a 2D mesh network. To reduce the computation complexity, we aggregate the Markov states by leveraging the mobility symmetry.
► An iterative algorithm is derived to quickly find the optimal service range that balances the cost of multicast tree reconfiguration and multicast packet delivery.