Clustering Algorithms in MANETs: A Review

A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a multihop wireless network in which the mobile nodes are dynamic in nature and has a limited bandwidth and minimum battery power. Due to this challenging environment the mobile nodes can be grouped into clusters to achieve better stability and scalability. Grouping the mobile nodes is called clustering, in which a leader node is elected to manage the entire network. In this paper, we consider the various approaches for clustering focus on different performance metrics. Each cluster contain a particular node called cluster head which is elected as cluster head according to the specific metric or combination of metrics such as mobility, energy, degree, weight etc. In this survey paper, we study some clustering schemes such as Mobility-based clustering, Energy-efficient clustering, Connectivity-based clustering, Weighted-based clustering and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.