Implementation and evaluation of a Multilevel-Clustering Routing Algorithm for MANETs

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are autonomously self-organized networks without infrastructure support. In a mobile ad hoc network, nodes move arbitrarily; therefore the network may experience rapid and unpredictable topology changes. Because nodes in a MANET normally have limited transmission ranges, some nodes cannot communicate directly with each other. Hence, routing paths in mobile ad hoc networks potentially contain multiple hops, and every node in mobile ad hoc networks has the responsibility to act as a router. In this article it is examined the importance of wireless ad-hoc networks and the Multilevel-Clustering Routing Algorithm (MCRA). The MCRA algorithm was simulated with our MANSIM simulator and then it was fully implemented in a real-world environment (the campus of the University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB)). The results demonstrate that, among other MANET routing protocols, the performances of the MCRA protocol are highly improved.