A hierarchical routing protocol providing stability and distribution for MANET

Many hierarchical routing algorithms have been proposed to support routing in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Hierarchical structures have been used to provide scalable solutions in many large networking systems (L. Kleinrock, et al., (1997)), (Z. Xu, et al., (1998)) that have been designed. Building a hierarchical ad hoc network is a very promising way to achieve scalability. Previous protocols have been focusing on the schemes of how to cluster and how to establish hierarchical structure on the lowest level. In this paper we extend existing schemes to help build more distributed and stable hierarchical structures. We present the design and implementation of an algorithm required for rapid self-organization of network into multiple levels. We utilize gateways between clusters to relive the storage and communication overhead of clusterhead. Since each node can only act as clusterhead in single level at most, independency of different levels is increased and overhead of critical nodes is reduced as a result. The new algorithm also provides some insight into new possible designs of routing protocols.