| Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) form a new class of networks that has emerged recently. In WMNs, multicast is an efficient way to distribute data to a group of receivers. In this thesis, we first propose a, framework that supports multicast routing between the wired Internet and wireless mesh networks in a simple and efficient manner. We then propose a protocol named SPTM (Shortest Path Tree algorithm for wireless Mesh networks) for efficient and scalable multicast routing inside the mesh backbone of a WMN. Our simulation results show that the SPTM protocol outperforms existing protocols such as ODMRP, MOSPF, MST and MNT in terms of packet delivery ratio, throughput, and end-to-end delay. Based on the SPTM protocol, we further propose an effective reliable multicast protocol for WMNs called Mesh Reliable Multicast (MRM). Simulation results justify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed MRM protocol in WMNs. |
