Multicasting in mobile ad hoc and wireless sensor networks

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Mobile ad hoc and wireless sensor networks have become a very active research area in the past few years due to their promising potential applications and involved research challenges. A mobile ad hoc network is a wireless network with no fixed infrastructure. Each node in the network operates in a self-organized and decentralized manner. Communication within the network can be established by the collaboration of a number of neighboring network nodes. Wireless sensor networks are a special category of ad hoc networks which are used to provide communication among densely deployed sensor nodes in a specific application region. Sensor nodes are tiny, autonomous devices which possess sensing, data processing, and communicating capabilities. As more and more small, cheap and power-efficient sensor devices become available, wireless sensor networks become increasingly attractive for applications such as environmental monitoring, health care, home security, industrial sensing and diagnostics, and data collection in battlefields or in harsh environments which are not accessible to human beings.      Multicasting, an efficient method of delivering information to a group of destinations, plays an important role in many applications which require group communication capability. A scalable and reliable multicast support is an essential feature for many applications in ad hoc and sensor networks, such as emergency search and rescue, military communications, real-time data sensing, and emerging applications such as mobile TV and peer-to-peer communication for music and video sharing among personal digital assistant devices.      The proposed research includes the development of novel and scalable algorithms and architectures to enable efficient group communication in mobile ad hoc and sensor networks. It is expected that the proposed research will play an important role in future unified multicast architecture as the trend of wire-line and wireless network convergence continues. This research will help solidify Canada's place in the forefront of communications technology.