Energy-efficient unicast and multicast communication for wireless ad hoc networks using multiple criteria

Routing is a primordial task in wireless ad hoc networks due to the multihop nature of packet relaying for both unicast (one-to-one) and multicast (one-to-many) communication. Furthermore, the lack of a fixed infrastructure makes energy efficiency a top priority in all operational aspects of these networks. This chapter focuses on energy-aware solutions for unicast and multicast routing, presenting a novel class of routing algorithms based on multiple criteria. According to this approach, each link—and by extension, path—is assigned a cost vector consisting of several cost parameters. After enumerating the candidate nondominated paths, the optimal is selected based on an optimization function. The algorithms are evaluated against well-known unicast and multicast strategies and are shown to result in improved and more balanced energy consumption.