Dynamic Clustering of Self Configured Ad-Hoc Networks Based on Mobility

K. Manasoukis, J.S. Baras

38th Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS 2004), Princeton, NJ, March 17-19, 2004

 

Abstract

If heterogeneous ad hoc battlefield networks are to scale to hundreds or thousands of nodes, then they must be automatically split into separate network domains. Domains allow routing, QoS and other networking protocols to operate on fewer nodes, with cross-domain interaction only through a few border nodes. This division greatly reduces overall overhead (e.g., routing overhead with n nodes goes from O(n2) toO(nlogn)) and allows protocols to be tuned to more homogenous condition 1]. On the other hand, the benefits from grouping the nodes are obvious only when the clustering is done in a way that the overhead that is produced due to its application does not offset the gain from the grouping of nodes. A significant source of overhead is the reclustering of nodes due to dynamic changes in network topology. If we manage to minimize the effect of reclustering then we expect the performance of the network to be improved (e.g., more scalable and survivable network). In this work we try to identify the various mobility groups and cluster the nodes accordingly. By grouping together nodes with similar mobility characteristics we can minimize/eliminate the effect of reclustering, since the topology changes will not affect the intra cluster connectivity