Multiple Service Providers with IP Flow Mobility: From an Economic Perspective

The proliferation of the mobile Internet and social networks reshapes the proportion of uploaded data in the entire Internet traffic. IFOM (IP Flow Mobility) technology, which offloads the cellular data to the WiFi or Femtocells or other complementary networks, plays a crucial role in improving the throughput of cellular systems. Although there have been many studies on the IFOM technology, most of them are done from a technical perspective, and the issues related the dissemination and utilization of the IFOM technology are largely overlooked. Unlike prior research works, this paper addresses issues involved with the IFOM technology from an economic perspective. Specifically, we model the competitions among multiple service providers supporting or not supporting the IFOM technology by leveraging the Game Theory, and then analyze the Nash Equilibrium for the ensuing game model. We also conduct extensive simulations to determine the factors that affect the market share and profit of the service providers. We believe that this research work will provide valuable guidance to service providers for the promotion and utilization of the IFOM technology.