A Comparative Analysis of Multicasting Routing Protocols in MANET under various Placement Models

Multicast routing is a key technology for modern communication networks. In multicasting, a single copy of message is sent by the source to multiple receivers on a shared channel. This is especially appropriate in wireless networks where bandwidth is scarce and many users are sharing the same wireless channels. Wired and infrastructure based wireless networks are supported by many multicast routing protocols. But one particularly challenging environment for multicasting is MANETs (Mobile Ad-hoc Networks). MANET is a collection of mobile nodes connected by wireless links forming a dynamic topology without any network infrastructure such as routers, servers, access points/cables or centralized administration. In MANET, each node can act as both host and router. This paper presents the simulation and analysis of three existing multicast routing protocols for MANETs namely On-demand Multicast Routing Protocol (ODMRP), Multicast Open Shortest Path First (MOSPF) an Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP). Qualnet 5.2 is used as simulation tool for carrying out simulations.