•Ad hoc networks: infrastructure-less, rapid deployment
•Many applications for ad hoc networks require one-to-many and many-to-many communication
•Multicast protocols are intended to efficiently support such communication patterns
•Multicasting well researched in fixed networks (i.e., the Internet), building efficient distribution
structures (typically a multicast
tree)
•Ad hoc networks: dynamic topology makes it harder to maintain distribution structure with low overhead