REPSYS: A Robust and Distributed Incentive Scheme for Collaborative Caching and Dissemination in Content-Centric Cellular-Based Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks

In this article, a robust and distributed incentive scheme for collaborative caching and dissemination in content-centric cellular-based vehicular delay-tolerant networks (REPSYS) is proposed. REPSYS is robust because despite taking into account first- and second-hand information, it is resilient against false accusations and praise, and distributed, as the decision to interact with another node depends entirely on each node. The performance evaluation shows that REPSYS is capable, while evaluating each node's participation in the network, of correctly classifying nodes in most cases. In addition, it reveals that there are trade-offs in REPSYS, for example, to reduce detection time of nodes that neither cache nor disseminate other nodes' data, one may sacrifice the system's resilience against false accusations and praise, or even, by penalizing nodes that do not disseminate data, one may temporarily isolate nodes that could contribute to data dissemination.