User cooperation in a multi-hop network with multi-interface devices for energy efficiency

Battery-operated mobile devices may lose their freedom of mobility because of their dependence on being in close proximity to a power outlet as applications with higher computation and processing capabilities consume more energy and drain battery life faster. One of the techniques used to minimize energy consumption in battery-operated mobile devices is user cooperation at the time of wireless transmission. In this paper, we formulate minimization of energy consumption through user cooperation routing in mobile devices that have multiinterfaces under a multi-hop network. User cooperation optimization will be exploited by selecting a short-range wireless communication that has the lowest energy consumption as a proxy for establishing long-range wireless communication. Two algorithms are proposed to solve the problem. Simulation results show that both algorithms are able to solve this cooperation problem and optimize energy efficiency.