A Practical Incentive System for Multihop Wireless Networks

In multi-hop wireless networks (MWNs), the mobile nodes usually act as router store lay other nodes ‘packets to enable new applications and enhance network performance and deployment. However, sel�sh nodes may not cooperate and make use of the cooperative nodes to relay their packets, which has a negative effect on network fairness, security, and performance. Incentive systems implement micropayment in the network to stimulate the sel�sh nodes to cooperate. However, micropayment schemes have originally been proposed for Web-based applications; therefore, a practical incentive system should consider the differences between Web-based applications and cooperation stimulation. In this pa- per, �rst, these differences are investigated, and a payment model is developed for the efficient implementation of micropayment in MWNs. Second, based on the developed payment model, an incentive system is proposed to stimulate the nodes’ cooperation in MWNs.