Towards a framework for cross layer incentive mechanisms for multihop video dissemination

For transmitting data in scenarios showing a high user density, infrastructure based and multihop Ad hoc communication can be combined to benefit from the reliability of a stable backbone network and the increased coverage of multihop communication. Such scenarios have been investigated from a cross layer perspective in the recent years mainly focusing on pure performance optimization. However, the question of providing incentives to nodes to forward data has largely been ignored in the cross layer domain, even though providing incentives is vital for the network: each node represents a user comparing his or her satisfaction and the cost to decide on his or her participation. A likely reason for the gap in cross layer incentive research is the necessity to model users as well as the network in order to express a user's utility, which requires knowledge in both fields. In order to foster future research in the area of cross layer incentive schemes, this work proposes a general cross layer simulation model combining user and network models. Moreover, an instantiation of the simulation model for the use case of live video broadcasting is presented.