A peer-to-peer approach to cellular communications

Abstract

Only recently, for the first time, private individuals are in a position to provide telecommunication services. This was brought on by the emergence of low-cost Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies. The density of WLANs in many urban areas is high and increasing. The access bandwidth that WLANs can offer to individual users is greater than what cellular offers-even if the backhaul is a simple DSL connection. In addition, certain new mobile phones support WLAN technology and protocols. Thus, the stage is set for an alternative public cellular network, one that relies on numerous WLAN access points owned and managed by private individuals.We view home WLANs as an underexploited resource. We believe that a controlled WLAN sharing scheme is interesting, viable, and urgently needed. Such a scheme would allow outsiders who are passing by home WLANs to access services on the network in a systematic way. Why would individuals share their WLANs when potential direct and indirect costs are involved? The basic idea is that they would do it in exchange of expected similar services in the future on other WLANs.We have defined, designed, and evaluated a system for sharing WLANs with others, called Peer-to-Peer Wireless Network Confederation (P2PWNC). The system is relying on the principle of indirect reciprocity. We show through simulations that our reciprocity algorithms encourage cooperation in a P2PWNC system (where we assume that all peers are independent and selfish and that software and hardware modules can be tampered with). In addition, a P2PWNC system: (1) is open to all and allows participants to use Uncertified Public Keys as their identities, (2) is fully distributed, relying on a decentralized subsystem for storing transaction history, (3) uses standard hardware and software we developed for some of the main relevant platforms (Linux-based WLAN access points and Windows Mobile-based cell phones.More information can be found at http://mm.aueb.gr/research/P2PWNC/.This is joint work with (my now graduated Ph.D. student) Elias Efstathiou, (my current Ph.D. student) Pantelis Frangoudis, and the whole P2PWNC team.