arrow
Return

Game-Based Mobility-Aware Distributed Clustering Routing Protocol for UAV Ad Hoc Networks

delete2026-03-30
delete0
PRE
AI
C
Cuiran Cai
Z
Zhenyu Na
L
Lizhe Liu
Q
Qing Guo
L
Laiwei Jiang
B
Bin Lin
A
Arumugam Nallanathan
DOI:10.1109/tvt.2026.3678784delete
deleteOriginal
deleteOriginal request for help
deleteShare
deleteSave
Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
While decentralization and self-organization endow unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ad hoc networks with strong capabilities of collaboration, robustness and flexible deployment, the limited energy of UAVs imposes more stringent requirements on routing protocol design. To address the challenges of frequent link disruptions and uneven energy consumption caused by high node mobility, this paper proposes a game-based mobility-aware distributed clustering (GMDC) routing protocol. First, node mobility is regarded as the primary factor, and a mobility similarity metric based on position and velocity is introduced. An efficient mobility-aware adaptive clustering algorithm is developed to accomplish node clustering. Second, a non-cooperative mixed-strategy game model is constructed within each cluster, where energy, distance to the cluster centroid, the cluster head nomination count and connectivity with neighboring clusters are jointly considered for electing cluster heads and gateways. Finally, a dynamic cluster maintenance mechanism based on periodic detection is established, in which bidirectional state confirmation is achieved through periodic broadcasts of maintenance messages by cluster heads and timely responses from cluster members, thereby ensuring stable communication. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with K-means, WCA and GDCR, GMDC consistently achieves the longest network lifetime, a more stable topology, and faster topology construction as the number of nodes increases and mobility heterogeneity intensifies.
Keywords:
UAV ad hoc networks
clustering routing
mobility similarity
mixed-strategy game
cluster maintenance

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology cover
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
IF:
7.1
Papers:
1.8W
Citations:
6.6W

Organization

Q
Queen Mary University of London
Scholars:
1.1K
Papers: 534
Citations: 3.4W
C
civil aviation university
Scholars:
2
Papers: 1
Citations: 0
D
Dalian Maritime University
Scholars:
1.2W
Papers: 7.8K
Citations: 6.3K
H
Harbin Institute of Technology
Scholars:
1.4W
Papers: 4.4K
Citations: 8.5W
researcher View more organizations