A clustering algorithm to improve routing stability in mobile ad-hoc networks

The dynamic nature of mobile nodes in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs), causes their association and disassociation to and from clusters perturb the stability of network and problem becomes worse if nodes are clusterheads (CH). Therefore cluster maintenance schemes are needed to handle new admissions and releases of node in the clusters. In this paper, we introduce a novel cluster maintenance algorithm which selects a new clusterhead from a trusty area that is defined previously based on some maintenance optimization rules. The election process is done before the current clusterhead leaves the cluster. So the routes which include this clusterhead as a middle node are less probable to break and will be more stable. Number of nodes belonging to a cluster is restricted in the proposed algorithm. In order to prevent of overusing of clusterheads' battery power, the CH selection process is invoked whenever the battery power of current CH goes below some threshold.