A load balancing energy efficient clustering algorithm for MANETs

Nodes in mobile ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are characterized by their limited resources. Hence, the concept of clustering was introduced to allow spacial reuse of bandwidth and to minimize routing overhead. However, node mobility perturbs the stability of the network and affects the performance of other protocols such as scheduling, routing, and resource allocation, which makes re-clustering the network to maintain up-to-date information at each node unavoidable. Consequently, clustering models for MANETS should be carefully designed while taking into consideration the fact that mobile nodes are energy constrained. In this paper, we propose a dynamic energy-efficient clustering algorithm that prolongs the network lifetime by electing cluster-heads taking into consideration, in addition to other parameters such as mobility, their residual energies and making them dynamically monitor their energy consumption to either diminish the number of their cluster-members or relinquish their roles. We have evaluated the performance of the proposed clustering model and compared it with other related clustering approaches found in the literature. Obtained results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The proposed dynamic energy efficient clustering algorithm (DEECA) prolongs the network lifetime by electing cluster-heads taking into consideration their residual energies and making them dynamically monitor their energy consumption to either diminish the number of their cluster members or relinquish their roles. We have compared the proposed model to other related clustering approaches. The Figure shows that after 6000 seconds 48 nodes ran out of energy in other approaches while only 14 nodes ran out of energy in the proposed DEECA. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.