Analyzing credit evolution for credit-based incentive schemes in wireless mesh networks

Incentive mechanisms are often needed in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) so as to encourage nodes to relay or forward packets for other nodes. However, there is a lack of understanding on the interactions between the incentive mechanisms and the underlying routing protocols, and whether the network can sustain such traffic workload in the long run. In this paper, we propose a general mathematical framework via stochastic difference equations to model the interaction of incentive mechanisms and routing protocols. A credit evolution model is provided. Based on it, we study the expected credit variation of each node and use the Gini´s coefficient to quantify the credit disparity among nodes. We also introduce the concept of differentiated pricing in the incentive mechanism to achieve credit equality among nodes so the WMN is more robust to sustain the traffic workloads.