Title: Wireless multicast cross-layer framework for rate allocation: protocol design

Authors: Amr Mohamed, Hussein Alnuweiri

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2317, Doha, Qatar. ' Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M, Qatar, Doha, Qatar

Abstract: Multicast-based communication is an efficient scheme especially in multihop ad hoc networks where the MAC layer is based on one-hop broadcast from one source to multiple receivers. In this paper, we discuss a rate allocation framework for multicast sessions over multihop wireless networks. We propose a framework that facilitates the online calculation of optimal rates for a set of multicast sessions such that the aggregate utility for all sessions is maximised. This framework is used to steer the network of ad hoc nodes towards the optimal point in real time using a totally distributed and asynchronous environment settings.

Keywords: cross-layer design; utility-based resource allocation; wireless ad hoc networks; multicast MAC protocol design; wireless networks; mobile networks; sensor networks; network protocols; next generation network technologies; multimedia; internet; distributed computing; rate allocation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPT.2009.024169

International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology, 2009 Vol.4 No.1, pp.44 - 53

Published online: 27 Mar 2009 *

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