A framework for the multicast lifetime maximization problem in energy-constrained wireless ad-hoc networks

We consider the problem of maximizing the lifetime of a given multicast connection in wireless networks that use directional antennas and have limited energy resources. We provide a globally optimal solution to this problem for a special case of using omni-directional antennas. This graph theoretic approach provides us insights into more general case of using directional antennas, and inspires us to produce a group of heuristic algorithms. Experimental results show that our algorithms outperform other energy-aware multicast algorithms significantly in terms of multicast lifetime.