Scenario-based Diameter-bounded Algorithm for Cluster Creation and Management in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

The construction of stable and adaptive clusters providing good performance and faster convergence rate with minimal overhead is a challenging task in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). This paper proposes a clustering technique for MANETs, which is distributed, dominating set based, weighted and adaptive to changes in the topology called Distributed Scenario-based Clustering Algorithm for Mobile ad hoc networks (DSCAM). The election of clusterheads and gateway nodes is based on (k, r) - Dominating set, where k is the minimum number of clusterheads per node in the network and r is the maximum number of hops between a node and its clusterhead. After selecting clusterheads, affiliation of other nodes with the clusterhead is decided based on the quality of clusterhead, which is a function of connectivity, stability, residual battery power and transmission rate. Among the k dominating nodes, non clusterhead nodes select the most qualified node as its clusterhead. DSCAM creates stable clusters with less overhead and maximizes the life span of the network. The performance of this algorithm is evaluated through simulation and the results are encouraging.