On-demand multicasting in ad-hoc networks:comparing AODV and ODMRP

Multicasting can efficiently support a wide variety of applications that are characterized by a close degree of collaboration, typical for many mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) applications currently envisioned. To deal with the specific characteristics of MANETs, new multicast protocols that operate in an on-demand manner are being proposed and investigated. Our results show that a tree-based on-demand protocol is not necessarily the best choice. A mesh-based protocol can outperform tree-based protocols, due to the availability of alternative paths, which allow multicast datagrams to be delivered to all or most multicast receivers even if links fail.