Design framework for hierarchy maintenance algorithms in mobile ad hoc networks

Domain autoconfiguration techniques allow the quick formation of highly optimized hierarchies that greatly enhance network scalability and overall performance. For example, instead of producing a simple two level hierarchy based only on topology, the optimization can produce multi-level hierarchies that take into account factors such as mission goals and predicted node/link heterogeneity. However, in dynamic networks, such as expected in the future military networks, these highly optimized solutions degrade very quickly. Indeed, if we use standard local maintenance algorithms that do not align well with the optimization goals, then the performance can reach the level of a suboptimal solution in less than two minutes. This paper proposes a taxonomy of local maintenance algorithms into four basic classes and quantifies the performance benefits of using representative approaches that act in accordance with the optimization goals.