Abstract-This paper presents a mobility-based d-hop clustering algorithm (MobDHop), which forms variable-diameter clusters based on node mobility pattern in MANETs. We introduce a new metric to measure the variation of distance between nodes over time in order to estimate the relative mobility of two nodes. We also estimate the stability of clusters based on relative mobility of cluster members. Unlike other clustering algorithms, the diameter of clusters is not restricted to two hops. Instead, the diameter of clusters is flexible and determined by the stability of clusters. Nodes which have similar moving pattern are grouped into one cluster. The simulation results show that MobDHop has stable performance in randomly generated scenarios. It forms lesser clusters than Lowest-ID and MOBIC algorithm in the same scenario. In conclusion, MobDHop can be used to provide an underlying hierarchical routing structure to address the scalability of routing protocol in large MANETs.

With the emergence of large mobile ad hoc networks, the ability of existing routing protocols to scale well and function satisfactorily comes into question. Clustering has been proposed as a means to divide large networks into groups of suitably smaller sizes such that prevailing MANET routing protocols can be applied. However, the benefits of clustering come at a cost. Clusters take time to form and the clustering algorithms also introduce additional control messages that contend with data traffic for the wireless bandwidth. In this paper, we aim to analyze a distributed multi-hop clustering algorithm, Mobilitybased D-Hop(MobDHop), based on two key clustering performance metrics and compare it with other popular clustering algorithms used in MANETs. We show that the overhead incurred by multi-hop clustering has a similar asymptotic bound as 1-hop clustering while being able to reap the benefits of multi-hop clusters.

No abstract