Enabling wireless cooperation in user provided networks

Abstract

This paper investigates user provided networks. Such networks have become important research in the field of informatics engineering due to the recent popularity of smart phones. User provided networks are independent from traditional Internet service providers. Communication and information exchange between users occurs opportunistically, i.e., when the smart phones are close enough to exchange information. Most user provided networks are based on the radio standard IEEE 802.11, popularly known as ‘wi-fi’. However, some networks are based on other low range radio standards, such as Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4. User provided networks are important to the society when the traditional Internet service providers become unavailable. For example, this may occur in terrorist attacks, earthquakes, or even cyber attacks. In these emergency situations, when users have a greater interest in common, an efficient system for non-presencial information exchange is necessary. Such networks are also interesting in a social context, when users must be incentivized to share their resources (storage capacity, wireless connectivity and battery) to enable the exchange of information. This paper addresses both situations: i) networks whose users have a common interest and ii) networks whose users need to be encouraged to share resources. Basically, the contributions of this paper can be summarized as the Delay Tolerant Reinforcement-Based routing solution and the Messages on oFfer incentive mechanism. The first is a routing solution for user provided networks when the users have a prior interest in common. The second is an incentive mechanism to encourage users to exchange information. Both solutions showed excellent results in the simulation environment.