Peer-reviewed

In ad hoc networks, due to the lack of a dedicated network infrastructure, members have to collaborate ones with the others to support the basic networking functions that allow them to communicate. The main challenge of this model is combating the intrinsic selfish behavior of the participants, which are usually equipped with handheld and mobile devices with limited resources. In this paper, a forwarding protocol is presented that stimulates the cooperation through a mechanism that combines both credit and reputation-based solutions. A mi-cropayment protocol is used to charge and reward the applier and forwarders of a transmission respectively. The credits obtained for collaboration not only are a mean to pay for network services, but are a symbol of the cooperative range of a node. Using this information, the presented model benefits most cooperative nodes with preferential transmission channels and a higher quality of service. The model is suited for plain and cluster-based ad hoc networks.