Cooperation Issues in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

The infra-structureless nature of ad hoc networks re-quires the distribution of network functions to all the partic-ipating nodes. The underlying requirement for making op-erational the cooperative paradigm is the supposed good-behavior of all entities composing and, at the same time, using the system. However, the lack of any centralized au-thority that enforces the overall collaboration motivates a possible tendency of entities toward self-interested behav-ior. In this paper, we explore the cooperation issues across layers of the protocol stack for a network node. In par-ticular, we perform a per-protocol analysis of coopera-tive aspects, and identify the problems potentially affect-ing each layer. Afterward, we survey current research ap-proaches to cooperation enforcing, highlighting common features among different layers ’ solutions, as well as open issues. 1