Computer Networks 118 (2017) 15–23

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Computer Networks
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comnet

EFMMRP: Design of efficient fuzzy based multi-constraint multicast

routing protocol for wireless ad-hoc network
Ajay Kumar Yadav∗, Santosh Kumar Das, Sachin Tripathi
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand 826004, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is a temporarily wireless network constructed by a set of mobile de-
Received 23 May 2016 vices which are communicated over wireless channel without having any fixed infrastructure and cen-
Revised 7 December 2016
tralized administration. Multicasting is a mechanism to send a data packet from one node to a group of
Accepted 1 March 2017
receivers node at a time. There are various challenges in a MANET due to dynamic network topology and
Available online 2 March 2017
limited resources. Since the network performance metrics such as delay, bandwidth and energy changes
Keywords: very frequently due to node mobility i.e. these network metrics have the uncertainty issues in a wire-
Wireless ad hoc networks less mobile ad-hoc network. The impact of these uncertainty issues creates a problem in the selection
Mobility of optimal path from source node to a group of receiver nodes. So, in this paper, we have tried to con-
Fuzzy logic trol these uncertainties issues in order to conserve the network resources using fuzzy logic tool. In this
Routing mechanism all the available network metrics of the routes is converted into a single metric i.e. fuzzy cost
Multicasting
or communication cost. The routes having minimum fuzzy cost will be considered as optimal path and
the data is to be transmitted over this path from source node to a set of receivers. The simulation has
been conducted using NS-2 and MATLAB, the results shows the effectiveness of the proposed protocol
(EFMMRP) over ODMRP and MAODV in terms of pacaket delivery ratio, packet delivery delay and control
overhead.
© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is a self configuring set of
wireless mobile devices that form a temporary and dynamic wire-
less network without the help of any fixed network infrastructure
or centralized base station. In MANET, there are several constraints
such as dynamic topology, limited network resources (like delay,
bandwidth and energy), high node mobility and low channel band-
width [1]. The appropriate applications where MANET is used in
the areas where rapid deployment, dynamic reconfiguration are
required and wired network is not available. It includes military
battlefields, emergency search operation, rescue sites, classrooms,
and conventions where participants could share their information
dynamically using their mobile devices [2]. The fame of sending
a message to a set of receiver nodes leads to multicasting mech-
anism. Multicasting is a mechanism to send a data packet to a
set of receivers identified by a single destination address that con-
serve the network resources and renovate the performance of the
network. It is designed for group-oriented communication. Several
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ajay.iitdhn@gmail.com, ajay.csjmku@yahoo.com (A.K. Yadav),
sunsantosh2007@rediffmail.com (S.K. Das), var_1285@yahoo.com (S. Tripathi).
multicast routing protocols have been offered for mobile ad-hoc
networks.
There are several multicast routing protocols for a MANET ex-
ist but almost not consider the network metrics uncertainty is-
sues [3]. Since, the network performance metrics such as end-
to-end delay, channel bandwidth, and energy of the mobile nodes
changes very frequently in a wireless ad-hoc network due to high
node mobility. Obvious, it is very difficult to control all these un-
certainty issues at a time because there is no any precise mathe-
matical tool that can control all these uncertainty issues. There is
only one mathematical tool that can control such type of uncer-
tainty issues called Fuzzy Logic System (FLS). It provides a feasible
tool that can solve the multiple Quality of Services (QoS) param-
eters uncertainty issues at time. Fuzzy logic is a theory that not
only supports several inputs but also utilize the extensive impre-
cision information at a time [4,5]. So, in this case the application
of fuzzy logic system is a suitable option to solve the uncertainty
issues in a wireless mobile ad-hoc network.
Against this background, in this paper we have designed a
protocol called design of efficient fuzzy based multi-constraint
multicast routing protocol for a wireless mobile ad-hoc network
(EFMMRP). It considers multiple quality of services (QoS) perfor-
mance constraints at a time in terms of end-to-end delay, channel

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2017.03.001
1389-1286/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.