On the scalability of multicast location service in mobile ad hoc networks

Location based multicasting has been gaining considerable attention due to its stateless operation, potential for scalability and resilience against mobility in mobile ad hoc networks. One of the key requirements for location based multicast is location service, which operates in a distributed manner to provide the current locations of all group members in order to construct a location based multicast tree. While literature describes a few mulitcast location service protocols, there has been no prior study to evaluate these protocols for scalable operation in a large ad hoc network. In this paper, we study four multicast location service protocols, namely-MLS, HRPM, AMDLM and SPBM-for scalability in a uniformly distributed ad hoc network. Our analysis shows that the MLS protocol scales well in both the total location service cost as well as the per node storage requirement to carry out location service.