Multicast Routing Algorithm for Ad hoc Networks Based on Cognitive Radio

Mobile Ad hoc networks (MANETs) have the characteristics of distribution, self-organization and mobility. PUMA, as a mesh-based multicast routing protocol for MANET, has been proved to perform better than other comparable multicast algorithms because of its effectiveness and robustness. Recently, cognitive radio technology has been applied to solve the scarcity problem of radio spectrum resources. In this paper, we combine PUMA with cognitive radio technology and propose a novel multicast routing algorithm, which is named as CR-PUMA for MANET. In CR-PUMA, node detects the available channels and selects a suitable one to send data packets to its next-hop neighbor. A cross-layer approach, which goes across the physical layer, link layer and network layer, is employed in our algorithm. Simulation experiments show that CR-PUMA attains a superior performance in terms of packet delivery ratio and throughput.