New Data Accessibility Method for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is the cooperative engagement of a collection of wireless mobile nodes without the support of any centralized access point or existing infrastructure. The use of virtual topologies is a good alternative to build wireless multi-hop networks. It aims to maintain a topology that optimizes broadcasting or network performances. The problem is to determine an appropriate topology for ad hoc networks. This paper proposes a methodology for building distributed and dynamic virtual topology in ad hoc networks based on the concept of dominating sets. Dominating nodes are used to form a tree structure inside the clusters where the root of the tree is the cluster-head. The idea is to form a clustered network over which communication protocol can be efficiently designed. Due to lack of continues communication Distributed Adaptive Clustering Algorithm (DACA) is proposed to further improve the performance of data accessibility and reduce delay. By using the extensive experimental results in the NS-2 simulation environment, we demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves higher delivery ratio and significantly lower overhead compared with its non-clustering counterpart.