Multicasting in mobile ad hoc and wireless sensor networks

移动自组织和无线传感器网络由于其潜在的应用前景和涉及的研究挑战，在过去几年中已经成为一个非常活跃的研究领域。移动自组织网络是没有固定基础设施的无线网络。网络中的每个节点都以自组织和分散的方式运行。网络内的通信可以通过多个相邻网络节点的协作来建立。无线传感器网络是一种特殊的自组织网络，用于在特定应用区域内密集部署的传感器节点之间提供通信。传感器节点是微小的自主设备，具有传感、数据处理和通信能力。随着越来越多的小型，廉价和节能的传感器设备的出现，无线传感器网络对环境监测，医疗保健，家庭安全，工业传感和诊断以及战场或人类无法进入的恶劣环境中的数据收集等应用变得越来越有吸引力。多播是一种有效的将信息传递到一组目标的方法，在许多需要群通信能力的应用中发挥着重要作用。可扩展和可靠的多播支持是自组织和传感器网络中许多应用程序的基本功能，例如紧急搜索和救援，军事通信，实时数据传感，以及新兴应用程序，例如移动电视和个人数字助理设备之间的音乐和视频共享的点对点通信。提出的研究包括开发新颖和可扩展的算法和架构，以实现移动自组织和传感器网络中有效的组通信。随着有线网络和无线网络融合的趋势不断发展，本研究将在未来统一组播架构中发挥重要作用。这项研究将有助于巩固加拿大在通信技术前沿的地位。

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.