Stimulating Cooperative Behavior of Autonomous Devices – An Analysis of Requirements and Existing Approaches

@TECHREPORT{OKK03b,
  author = {Philipp Obreiter and Birgitta K{"o}nig-Ries and Michael Klein},
  month = {January},
  year = 2003,
  title = {Stimulating Cooperative Behavior of Autonomous Devices - An
          Analysis of Requirements and Existing Approaches},
  number = {2003-1},
  institution = {Universit"at Karlsruhe, Faculty of Informatics},
  abstract = {In the context of mobile and wireless devices, an information
             system is no longer a centralized component storing all the
             relevant data nor is it a decentralized component governed by a
             common authority. Rather, the information spread across huge
             numbers of autonomous mobile and wireless devices owned by
             independent organizations and individuals can be regarded as a
             highly dynamic, virtual information system. For this vision to
             become reality, the autonomous devices involved need to be
             motivated to cooperate. This cooperation needs to occur not only
             on the application layer, but, depending on the network
             architecture, also on the lower layers from the link layer on
             upwards. In this paper, we investigate on which protocol layers
             cooperation is needed and what constitutes uncooperative
             behavior. We then identify necessary properties of incentive
             schemes that encourage cooperation and discourage uncooperative
             behavior. Finally, using the example of ad hoc networks, the most
             challenging technical basis of a wireless information system, we
             compare existing incentive schemes to these characteristics.}
}