Dynamic multi-hop clustering for mobile hybrid wireless networks
Matthias R. Brust, Hannes Frey, Steffen Rothkugel · 2008
In mobile wireless networks communication is often improved by sending messages along a stable backbone of more reliable communication paths. Building such a backbone requires efficient clustering algorithms which aggregate network nodes into logical groups, each group being managed by a clusterhead and any two neighboring clusters being interconnected by at least one gateway node or gateway path. In this concept k-hop clustering refers to cluster structures where cluster members are at most k hops away from their clusterhead. While the dynamicity of mobile wireless network is often considered as a challenge, in this work we explicitly exploit node mobility in order to support cluster formation and maintenance of k-hop clusters. The described KHOPCA algorithm consists of a set of easy to implement rules which form and maintain k-hop sized clusters in a purely localized way. In a static network cluster formation is limited to a constant number of messages exchanges among neighboring nodes. In dynamic networks the localized nature of the described rules promise a fast cluster convergence and low communication complexity in case of mobility triggered cluster reconfiguration.