In this paper, we study and evaluate the overhead for a security algorithm based on clustering in MANET networks. The analysis of the communication overhead in Ad Hoc networks is an important issue because it affects the energy consumption and the limited battery life time of the mobile nodes. The algorithm partitions the network into clusters based on affinity relationships between nodes and two types of keys which are generated by a clusterhead. The first one is shared by a clusterhead and its local members and the second one is shared by the clusterhead and its parent cluster. The performance evaluation and communication overhead analysis of the proposed protocol are presented using simulation.
