Abstract
Nodes in a computer network often require a copy of a message to be delivered to every node in the network. The network layer can provide such a service, referred to as networkβwide broadcast routing or simply βbroadcastingβ. Broadcasting has many applications, including its role as a service to many routing protocols. In a mobile ad hoc network (MANET), simplistic broadcast schemes (such as flooding) inundate the network with redundancy, contention, collision, and unnecessary use of energy resources. This can prevent broadcasts from achieving their primary objective of maximizing delivery ratio, while also considering secondary objectives, such as balancing energy resources or reducing the network's burden on congested or busy nodes. As a solution, we propose multipleβcriteria broadcasting (MCB). In MCB, the source of each broadcast specifies the importance assigned to broadcast objectives. Network nodes use these priorities, along with local and neighbor knowledge of distributed factors, to broadcast in accordance with the objective priorities attributed to the message. Using __ns__2, the performance of MCB is evaluated and compared to that of other broadcast protocols. To present knowledge, MCB constitutes the first reconfigurable, multiβobjective approach to broadcasting. Copyright Β© 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.