Abstract. We propose a novel randomized algorithm for computing a dominating set based clustering in wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks. The algorithm works under a model which captures the characteristics of the set-up phase of such multi-hop radio networks: asynchronous wake-up, the hidden terminal problem, and scarce knowledge about the topology of the network graph. When modelling the network as a unit disk graph, the algorithm computes a dominating set in polylogarithmic time and achieves a constant approximation ratio.