Performance evaluation of the MoM mobile multicast protocol

This paper presents a performance study of a mobile multicast protocol called MoM, which is designed to support IP multicast for mobile hosts in an IP internetwork. The protocol uses the basic unicast routing capability of IETF Mobile IP, and leverages existing IP multicast to provide multicast services for mobile hosts as well. A key feature of the MoM protocol is the use of designated multicast service providers (DMSPs) to improve the scalability of mobile multicast. Discrete-event simulation is used in the performance evaluation of the protocol. The performance study focuses on the scalability, routing efficiency, fairness, and overhead of the MoM protocol, as well as on DMSP selection policies and the deliverability of multicast messages. The simulation results suggest distinct performance advantages for the MoM protocol over other approaches for mobile multicast, such as bi-directional tunnelling, particularly as the number of mobile group members increases. Furthermore, even simple policies for choosing a DMSP from possible candidates provide reasonable tradeoffs between handoff rates, routing efficiency, deliverability of messages, and protocol overhead. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.