| Reliable Multicast, which provides lossless delivery of a data stream from one sender to a group of receivers, has been intensively studied by the wired network research community in recent years. A number of reliable multicast protocols have been proposed and developed for the wired network environment. Wireless ad hoc networks, a class of wireless networks with no centralized entities, exhibit intrinsic characteristics that hinder wired reliable multicast protocols from being directly applicable. Nevertheless, there is an apparent demand for reliable multicast protocols that is amenable to wireless domains. More specifically, it is becoming increasingly important to determine how effectively such a protocol can improve communication reliability in wireless ad hoc networks.;In this thesis, we study the application of four known classes of wired reliable multicast protocols on ad hoc networks. These classes are: Sender-initiated, Receiver-initiated, Tree-based and Ring-based. Using several simulation scenarios, we observe the behavior of three representative protocols, namely SRM, TMTP, and RMP, in reacting to various testing stimuli in wireless ad hoc networks, and compare their performances. We demonstrate that wired reliable multicast protocols may not always be adequate for wireless ad hoc networks. Based on observations, we make recommendations on how the performance of such protocols can be improved to be amenable to the wireless ad hoc network environment. |
