Abhishek Patil
May, 2003
An Ad-hoc network is a dynamically reconfigurable wireless network with no fixed infrastructure or central administration. Multicast communication in ad-hoc environments is increasingly being used in many applications. Several IP-based multicast protocols have been specified for ad-hoc environments; however, they all suffer from high protocol overhead and low robustness. Many researchers have now turned their attention to application layer multicast. Although application layer (overlay) multicast is not as efficient as IP-based multicast, they have the advantages of being easy to implement and flexible to adapt. In overlay multicast, the participating hosts perform the multicast functionality, resulting in less overhead and higher robustness even in highly dynamic environments. This survey paper describes the concept of overlay multicast in ad-hoc environments and also presents work done in this area by various research groups.
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