Design of a Cluster-Based Peer to Peer Architecture for MANETs

Abstract

During the last years, peer to peer (P2P) networks are becoming more and more popular because of their inherent properties that allow users to exchange information and also to collaborate between them with a tremendous easiness.In parallel to this evolution, the use of MANETs has been increased due to the low effort needed to their deployment.Nowadays every user equipped with a mobile device like a laptop or a PDA could create an ad-hoc network just configuring their wireless device. Thus, users without any infrastructure can connect to others. Using P2P platforms upon these kind of network will allow users to collaborate and exchange information. However the mayor application area of these P2P platforms is still the fixed network.This paper presents a new architecture for a collaborative working environment especially designed for MANETs solving the main drawbacks of other P2P platforms designed for static wired networks with the requirement of a high bandwidth. Our approach is based on clustering MANETs allowing efficient communication among nearby nodes without impairment of distant peers connectivity.