NeTS-WN: A Joule for your Byte: Barter-Exchange Incentive Mechanisms for Wireless Networks

本项目将探讨以物易物激励在无线网络合作中的作用。虽然合作无线技术显示出巨大的前景，但它们也假设一定程度的信任和一种可能不现实的“无私”行为。 协作终端将带来好处，但也会产生成本（浪费电池能量就是一个明显的例子）。随着时间的推移，对大多数参与者来说，收益在逻辑上可能会超过成本，但在短期内会有赢家和输家，我们不能现实地假设开明的自我利益会占上风。关于无线网络激励机制的大量文献强调了抽象机制，其中节点因帮助其他节点而获得某种形式的信用。这些先前的努力往往模仿复杂经济的运作。在这样做的时候，它们说明了这种办法所固有的困难。一个复杂经济体的有效运作需要稳定的货币、信用和信誉体系、对事物价值的共同理解以及大量的记录保存等因素。这可能是这种复杂性是不保证在这里，一个更简单的方法，易货和交换的机制的基础上，可以提供必要的激励措施，我们需要的合作程度在这个项目中，我们建议探讨的作用和限制的易货交换激励机制的无线网络。具体的研究任务包括通过交换带宽、网络连接和内容来诱导节点之间的合作的机制。这里提出的易货交换机制提供了一种手段，以补偿终端的利益和成本的时间不平等。此外，它们还提供了一种机制，通过该机制，认知无线电可以将自己组织成网络和/或在共享频谱中有效地操作。这里提出的研究是非常相关的预期部署的认知无线电网络，包括那些计划用于无线电通信的GENI设施。拟议的研究活动的教育补充，这里也将培养合作通信，在无线数据通信的新兴兴趣领域的研究生。

This project will explore the role of barter-exchange incentives for cooperation in wireless networks. While cooperative wireless techniques show great promise, they also assume a degree of trust and a form of "selfless" behavior that may not be realistic. Cooperating terminals will accrue benefits, but they will also incur costs (wasted battery energy being an obvious example). Over time, benefits might logically be expected to exceed costs for most participants, but in the short term there will be winners and losers, and we cannot realistically assume that enlightened self-interest will prevail. The sizable literature on incentive mechanisms for wireless networks has emphasized abstract mechanisms in which nodes receive some form of credit for helping other nodes. These prior efforts often mimic the operation of a complex economy. In doing so, they illustrate the difficulties inherent in this approach. The efficient operation of a complex economy requires such enablers as a stable currency, a system of credit and credit-worthiness, a shared understanding of what things are worth, and a good deal of record keeping. It may be that this complexity is not warranted here, and that a simpler approach, based on the mechanisms of barter and exchange, can provide the necessary incentives for the degree of cooperation we require.In this project, we propose to explore the roles and limitations of barter-exchange incentive mechanisms for wireless networks. The specific research tasks include mechanisms for inducing cooperation between nodes by exchange of bandwidth, network connectivity, and content. The barter-exchange mechanisms proposed here provide a means to compensate terminals for temporal inequities in benefits and costs. Further, they also provide a mechanism by which cognitive radios can organize themselves into networks and/or operate efficiently in shared spectrums. The research proposed here is of great relevance to the anticipated deployment of cognitive radio networks including those planned for the wireless subnets of the GENI facility. The proposed educational supplement to the research activities here will also train graduate students in cooperative communications, an area of emerging interest in wireless data communications.