Guaranteeing Method for the Stability of Cluster Structure Formed by Autonomous Decentralized Clustering Mechanism

—Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) can be configured by mobile terminals without any network infrastructure such as Access Points (APs), and they are expected to be a useful tool during serious disasters such as a large earthquake. Many studies have concentrated on clustering methods that aim at power saving and loadbalancing in MANETs. For the clustering mechanism of a MANET, we have proposed an autonomous decentralized structure formation method based on the local interaction of terminals and have used this method to create an autonomous decentralized clustering of MANETs. However, the problem of our proposed clustering method is that the number of clusters decreases with temporal evolution. The power saving and the load balancing by the hierarchical management of the network cannot be performed by this problem. This paper proposes a method which maintains the number of clusters (guarantees stability).