A Pricing Framework for Cooperative Relaying in Wireless Networks With Selfish Nodes

Extensive research in recent years has shown the benefits of cooperative relaying in wireless networks, where a transmission between two nodes is overheard and relayed by a common neighbor. However, most existing studies on the topic tackle the problem from an optimization perspective, assuming that the relay nodes are willing to help the source and ignoring the issue of their cooperation incentive. This assumption is inadequate for networks with selfish nodes, which are generally not willing to forward packets of other nodes. In this paper, the authors propose a pricing framework based on the idea of "Pay for cooperation" to encourage cooperation by relay nodes.