Security in User-Assisted Communications

Today, companies called service providers enable communications and control the related infrastructures. However, with increased computing power, advanced wireless technologies and more standardized terminals, users in the future will be able to take more control of communications. In this paper, we define and discuss a disruptive communication model called user-assisted communications (UAC), which allows users to assist other users to establish communications, and propose a method for managing trust and security, which are the most challenging variables in UAC and must be addressed before UAC can be implemented successfully. A social network based trust establishment (SN-TE) is proposed for UAC implementation.