HITM: A Hybrid Incentive Trade Model for Data Forwarding in DTNs

Abstract

In delay tolerant networks (DTNs), the delivery rate and delivery speed are restricted by node selfishness. To promote the delivery rate and reduce the delivery delay in DTNs, we propose a hybrid incentive trade model (HITM), which uses reputation compensation to stimulate nodes to give up their temporary benefits and transfer their forwarding missions to other more qualified nodes. Furthermore, HITM gives credit payment and reputation promotion to nodes whose mission transferring behaviors are capable of reducing delivery delay or promoting delivery reliability, and conversely punishes nodes whose mission transferring behaviors could prolong the delivery delay or impair the delivery reliability. Trace-driven experiments are performed to compare HITM with previous representative incentive schemes. The experiment results demonstrate that the HITM can effectively limit node selfishness, thereby promoting the delivery rate as well as reducing the delivery delay.