On supporting mobile peer to mobile peer communications

In this paper, we propose a new method for assessing the sociability scalar of a mobile peer by the network, most importantly with no involvement of the mobile peer. The sociability metric can help in the Application Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) guidance in Mobile Peer-to-Mobile Peer (MP2MP) scenario to scale up the database search of an ALTO server. The proposed method models encounters of mobile peers with predetermined areas, such as cells, tracking areas, gateway service areas, etc, depending on the targeted granularity. The obtained metrics, pertaining to inter-mobile peer relationship (i.e., sociability) and mobile peers mobility, are adopted to ALTO in a MP2MP scenario. In addition, metrics reflecting the energy budget of a mobile peer, the type of a mobile terminal, history of a mobile terminal in sharing contents with other mobile peers, etc, can be also taken into account by ALTO in the peer recommendation.