A Delay Analysis of Active Reliable Multicast Protocols on Unreliable Wireless Mesh Network Backhaul

Abstract Wireless mesh networks are designed as an economical solution to provide high quality service for last-mile broadband Internet access. The paramount priority of these networks is the throughput maximization which is in conflict with a scarce bandwidth. Multicast is a technology that provides a good trade-off between maximizing the throughput and minimizing the bandwidth usage. This paper quantifies the reliability gain of combining classes for reliable multicast in the wireless mesh network. We define the delay as the performance metric for reliability. We then provide an analytical analysis to study the impact of group size, packet loss rate and depth of the multicast tree on the performance improvement achieved by combining classes. Our numerical results show that combining classes significantly reduces distribution delays, compared to the receiver-initiated class alone. The performance gains increase as the group size, the packet loss rate and the depth of the multicast tree increase, making the classes combination approach more scalable with respect to these parameters.