A heterogeneous routing protocol based on a new stable clustering scheme

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is usually assumed to be homogeneous, where each mobile node shares the same radio capacity. However, a homogeneous ad hoc network suffers from poor scalability. Research has demonstrated its performance bottleneck both theoretically and through simulation experiments. Building a physically hierarchical ad hoc network is a very promising way to achieve scalability. Routing is critical to operate such a hierarchical structure efficiently. Previous research has been solely focusing on extending popular routing schemes developed for the homogeneous ad hoc network. We propose a new heterogeneous routing protocol specifically designed for the hierarchical ad hoc network. We also present a new active clustering scheme to help build a stable hierarchical structure, which is fundamental to heterogeneous routing protocols. Simulation results using GloMoSim show that our routing and clustering scheme gives good performance. The results also provide some insight into new possible designs of routing protocols and mobile network architectures for MANETs when large scale is desired.