The flatrate policy is an incentive for saving energy in mobile cooperation networks

In this paper we demonstrate that a flatrate policy is an incentive for saving energy in mobile cooperation networks. Inspired by the work of Courcoubetis and Weber about peer-to-peer systems, we present a game theoretic incentive mechanism obtained by providing an interpretation in terms of energy efficiency and coverage. The asymptotic properties of the obtained model support the application of a flatrate policy, which requires every participants to commit to the cooperation scheme a fix contribution in energy for reciprocally roaming communication routes and guarantees to every participant a sufficient incentive for cooperation by an individual average energy win from the scheme. We provide results from simulations which confirm the theory but also show the disrupting effects of actual traffic intensity and routing on game theoretic equilibria, pointing out how these equilibria can be restored.