R2P2: Reactive Routing and Payment Protocol for Named Data Network using Blockchain

TL;DR

This paper introduces R2P2, a protocol combining reactive routing and blockchain-based payments to incentivize mobile devices in Named Data Networks for better ad-hoc connectivity.

Contribution

It presents a novel protocol integrating routing and payment mechanisms using blockchain for NDN-based mobile ad-hoc networks.

Findings

Design of R2P2 routing protocol

Blockchain-based transaction settlement

Enhanced incentive mechanism for mobile devices

Abstract

With the continuous emergence of new mobile devices which support new communication paradigms such as D2D and V2V, Internet users can take advantage of these devices to achieve better Internet connectivity and improve service quality. Meanwhile, packet forwarding brings extra costs to devices (e.g. electricity consumption), that hinders the realisation of successful ad-hoc networks. This paper proposes Reactive Routing and Payment Protocol (R2P2) to incentivise mobile devices to contribute idle networking resources and gain monetary returns. The routing and payment protocol is developed for Named-Data Network (NDN) because its content-centric nature can better support the intermittent and ephemeral communication requirements in ad-hoc networks. Blockchain is used as the settlement platform for transactions between devices because of its neutrality, robustness and trust. R2P2 is still an on-going project. The content of this paper focuses on the design of R2P2.