Implementation of Network Coding for Social Mobile Clouds [Applications Corner]

In this work, the authors advocated for the need of social elements to make egoistic users cooperate with each other in certain situations. After discussing different forms of cooperation (specifically forced, altruistic, technology-enabled, and socially enabled), we introduced a number of example use cases. As discussed, the technology-enabled cooperation will cover a large number of these use cases. Furthermore, network coding is a technology that will make user cooperation more efficient and attractive to users. But in cases where the technology-enabled cooperation is not attractive enough, the social elements will play an important role. By means of social networks, examples were given of how social benefits can be created to persuade users to cooperate. More examples will be found in the future as social networking technology develops, but the initial examples underline the feasibility of that approach.