In a typical wireless mobile ad hoc network (MANET) using a shared communicationmedium, every node receives or overhears every data transmission occurring in its vicinity. However, this technique is not applicable when a power saving mechanism (PSM) such as the one specified in IEEE 802.11 is employed, where a packet advertisement period is separated from the actual data transmission period.When a node receives an advertised packet that is not destined to itself, it switches to a low-power state during the data transmission period, and thus, conserves power. However, since some MANET routing protocols such as Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) collect route information via overhearing, they would suffer if they are used with the IEEE 802.11 PSM. Allowing no overhearing may critically deteriorate the performance of the underlying routing protocol, while unconditional overhearing may offset the advantage of using PSM.

This paper proposes a new communication mechanism, called RandomCast or Rcast, via which a sender can specify the desired level of overhearing in addition to the intended receiver. Therefore, it is possible that only a random set of nodes overhear and collect route information for future use. Rcast improves not only the energy efficiency, but also the energy balance among the nodes, without significantly affecting the routing efficiency. Extensive simulation using the ns-2 network simulator shows that Rcast is highly energy-efficient compared to the original IEEE 802.11 PSM and On-Demand Power Management (ODPM) protocol in terms of total energy consumption (157% to 236% less than PSM and 28% to 131% less than ODPM) and energy balance (four times less variance than ODPM) among the nodes.