A K-Hop Cluster Maintaining Mechanism for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

The multi-hop clustering algorithms like Max-Min heuristic improve the scalability of mobile ad hoc networks compared to single-hop clustering algorithms. However, few papers focus on maintaining the stabilities of the multi-hop clusters. And multi-hop clusters without maintenance are prone to disruption due to mobility and large size against routing performance. We propose a k-hop cluster maintaining mechanism for mobile ad hoc networks (KCMM) based on Max-Min heuristic algorithm to increase the stability of multi-hop clusters for large-scale and dense scenarios. It uses the shortest paths from members to cluster heads and the local information stored in nodes to manipulate link failures and malfunction nodes after cluster formation. The simulation results demonstrate that the KCMM algorithm decreases number of cluster heads, prolongs clusters existing time and requires less control messages compared to KCMBC algorithm.