Multicast Algorithms for Multi-Channel Wireless Mesh Networks

Multicast is a key technology that provides efficient data communication among a set of nodes for wireless multi-hop networks. In sensor networks and MANETs, multicast algorithms are designed to be energy efficient and to achieve optimal route discovery among mobile nodes, respectively. However, in wireless mesh networks, which are required to provide high quality service to end users as the "Last-mile" of the Internet, throughput maximization conflicting with scarce bandwidth has the paramount priority. The authors propose a Level Channel Assignment (LCA) algorithm and a Multi-Channel Multicast (MCM) algorithm to optimize throughput for multi-channel and multi-interface mesh networks.