Performance Comparison of Multicast Routing Protocols under Variable Bit Rate Scenario for Mobile Adhoc Networks

An ad hoc network is formed by wireless mobile nodes (hosts) that operate as terminals as well as routers in the network, without any centralized administration. Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are characterized by lack of any fixed network infrastructure. In a MANET, there is no distinction between a host and a router, since all nodes can be sources as well as forwarders of traffic. Moreover, all MANET components can be mobile. MANETs differ from traditional, fixed-infrastructure mobile networks; MANETs require fundamental changes to conventional routing and packet forwarding protocols for both unicast and multicast communication. Wireless ad-hoc networks have gained a lot of importance in wireless communications. Wireless communication is established by nodes acting as routers and transferring packets from one to another in ad-hoc networks. Routing in these networks is highly complex due to moving nodes and hence many protocols have been developed. This Paper thesis concentrate mainly on routing protocols and their functionality in Ad-hoc networks with a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) discussion being made on four selected protocols MAODV, ADMRP, ODMRP and ABAM, ending with their comparison.