SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SCALABLE MULTICAST COMMUNICATION USING SELF-ROOTED FORWARDING TREES

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.