Preventing selfishness in open mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks are a new and challenging topic on mobile computing. A particular characteristic of ad hoc networks is their self-organization, what makes them highly dependable of the participants. Until recently, it was assumed that these networks would be composed of cooperative hosts, where their owners share a common goal. However, this assumption will probably be dropped due to the generalization of computers equipped with wireless network devices. This position paper shows how the selfishness of the participants in a ad hoc network can prejudice its overall functioning and sketches a protocol that discourages this kind of behavior.