Novel cluster maintenance protocol for efficient satellite integration in MANETs
Résumé
Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are a promising technology for emergency communications requiring easily deployable and dynamically adaptable topologies. However, MANETs can experience severe impairments because of node motion or scarce node density. The limited availability of communications due to partitioning compromises the rescue and recovery operations. Satellites may help in this respect by setting up temporary back up links. K-hop clustering techniques allow to select the nodes, called clusterheads providing access to the satellite communication, while optimizing the network load. However, the selection of clusterheads has to be monitored and maintained. The overhead in signaling introduced by the cluster maintenance has an important impact on the network performance. When addressing maintenance, most papers in the literature apply a preventive approach consisting in minimizing the number of maintenance events. This is done either by forming clusters that are supposed to be stable or by temporarily relaxing constraints on the cluster structure. Such a strategy raises two issues. First the actual cost of the required maintenance (e.g., in terms of signaling) has never been properly evaluated. Second, it is questionable to assume that a strong clustering policy will mitigate the impairments of maintenance. Indeed, maintenance is often the result of topology changes that are not under control. Finding a tradeoff between the cluster structure relevance and the induced maintenance overhead is not yet investigated. This article proposes a new maintenance policy allowing to minimize the number of exchanged signaling messages.
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Loading...