MAPLE: a framework for mobility‐aware pro‐active low energy clustering in ad hoc mobile wireless networks

Abstract

AbstractWe propose a framework for mobility‐aware pro‐active low energy (MAPLE) clustering in ad hoc mobile wireless networks. Most of the clustering approaches proposed in the literature primarily focus on the algorithmic aspects of clustering without considering the practical implementation issues and these are often reactive in nature. The proposed approach addresses the problem of clustering in a medium‐access control framework and enables pro‐active and energy‐efficient clustering by exploiting the node mobility information. In particular, for pro‐active clustering we introduce a method to exploit the link level information to estimate the mobility pattern of the wireless nodes and the cost of using a wireless link in terms of required transmission power. A channel reservation technique is used to reduce the number of contentions among the nodes while accessing the channel during cluster formation. Simulation results show that the proposed framework results in superior clustering performance in terms of stability, load distribution, and control overhead compared to other clustering approaches proposed in the literature. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.