Cooperative content retrieval in nomadic sensor networks

A nomadic sensor network consists of: (a) sensor nodes, that are fixed at some points and collect information about states or variables of the environment, and (b) mobile nodes that collect and disseminate this information. Mobile nodes usually belong to different classes, and are thus interested in different subsets of sensor node information. In such networks, dissemination of information content at smaller costs can be achieved if mobile nodes are cooperative and collect and carry information not only in their own interest, but also in the interest of other mobile nodes. A specific modeling scenario is considered in this paper where the network has the form of a graph; sensor nodes are located on the vertices of the graph and U-nodes move along the edges according to a random waypoint model. We present a game-theoretic analysis to find conditions under which a cooperative equilibrium can be sustained.