A clustering-based data replication algorithm in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks for improving data availability

In Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET), network partitioning occurs when nodes move freely and cause disconnections frequently. Network partitioning is a wide-scale topology change that can cause sudden and severe disruptions to ongoing data access, and consequently data availability is decreased. A new distributed clustering algorithm is presented in this paper for dynamically organizing mobile nodes into clusters in which the probability of path availability can be bounded. Based on this clustering algorithm, a data replication policy is proposed to improve data availability during network partitioning. Through theoretic analysis our algorithm has proper complexity. Simulation results show that the clusters created by our clustering algorithm have desirable properties and our algorithms improve the data availability effectively in MANET environment.