Multicasting, geocasting, and anycasting in sensor and actuator networks

This chapter reviews the scenarios where a given message is sent from a single source to possibly several destinations. These scenarios can be subdivided into multicasting, geocasting, multiratecasting, and anycasting. In multicasting, a given message must be routed from one node to a number of destinations whose locations may be arbitrary and spread over the network. Geocasting destinations are all nodes located in a given geographical area. Multiratecasting is a generalization of multicasting, where regular messages are sent from a source to several destinations, possibly at a different rate for each destination. Finally, in an anycasting scenario, a source must send a message to any node among a given set of destinations, preferably only one. Each of these scenarios corresponds to a typical use case in sensor and actuator networks.