Abstract: According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a node comprising a processor, a memory including a predefined mapping, the predefined mapping correlating network characteristics to related critical thresholds at which a delivery ratio of the node is close to a maximum level and at which a total number of transmissions by the node is close to a minimum number necessary to achieve the delivery ratio, and a component configured to communicate with one-hop neighbors of the node and configured to determine at least one characteristic of a dynamic network based on information received from the one-hop neighbors of the node, wherein, in reference to the predefined mapping, the processor is configured to identify a critical threshold associated with the at least one characteristic of the network and is configured to transmit a first packet to at least one one-hop neighbor based on the critical threshold.

Abstract: According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a node comprising a processor, a memory including a predefined mapping, the predefined mapping correlating network characteristics to related critical thresholds at which a delivery ratio of the node is close to a maximum level and at which a total number of transmissions by the node is close to a minimum number necessary to achieve the delivery ratio, and a component configured to communicate with one-hop neighbors of the node and configured to determine at least one characteristic of a dynamic network based on information received from the one-hop neighbors of the node, wherein, in reference to the predefined mapping, the processor is configured to identify a critical threshold associated with the at least one characteristic of the network and is configured to transmit a first packet to at least one one-hop neighbor based on the critical threshold.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for multicasting a data packet through a wireless network. The method includes a packet metadata which maintains a set of next-hop nodes on the routing path as well as the assigned destination nodes of the packet. In addition, each node maintains only a single self-rooted forwarding tree for determining the routing path. By using the metadata in conjunction with a single forwarding tree at each node, the method introduces a highly scalable alternative to multicast protocols based on link state routing source-based trees while substantially reducing the processor load. Furthermore, the method does not require a consistent view of the network topology, making it useful in mobile scenarios. Also included is a mechanism to minimize the packet metadata size for minimal impact to performance while supporting arbitrarily large multicast group sizes.