Geocast Routing Protocols for Ad-Hoc Networks

Abstract

Geocasting is a subset of conventional multicasting problem. Geocasting means to deliver a message or data to a specific geographical area. Routing refers to the activities necessary to route a message in its travel from source to the destination node. The routing of a message is very important and relatively difficult problems in the context of Ad-hoc Networks because nodes are moving very fast, network load or traffic patterns, and topology of the network is dynamical changes with time. In this chapter, different geocast routing mechanisms used in both Mobile Ad-hoc Networks and Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks. The authors have shown a strong and in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each protocol. For delivering geocast message, both the source and destination nodes use location information. The nodes determine their locations by using the Global Positioning System (GPS). They have presented a comprehensive comparative analysis of existing geocast routing protocols and proposed future direction in designing a new routing protocol addressing the problem.