DHMC: A Connection-Oriented Clustering Protocol for Mobility-Centric Sensor Networks

Preserving connectivity in Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (MWSN) having mobile nodes with heterogeneous mobility patterns is a great challenge and thus, is significantly important to ensure the success of mobility centric critical applications, like military, battlefield surveillance. This paper introduces a Dynamic, Heterogeneous Mobility-centric Clustering (DHMC) algorithm in which spatial and temporal densities are used. This protocol integrates the temporal aspect of a Minimum Period of Connectivity (MPC). Border nodes are used to reestablish connectivity among disconnected sub-clusters by increasing the communication range of the best suitable border nodes. Simulation was performed for three different mobility scenarios and showed that the proposed DHMC algorithm outperforms two well-known clustering algorithms LEACH and HEED in term of throughput and packets delivery ratio.