Reward mechanisms for P2P VoIP networks

Abstract

As we have seen, P2P VoIP software, such as Skype, has emerged from the current generation of telecommunication systems. However, establishing communication applications based on P2P networks without considering the operational models of the Internet presents potential dangers. In this study, we treat a VoIP telephone conversation as a dynamic game and compare the ex post reward mechanism with the ex ante reward mechanism in forward versus discard and QoS routing. Our simulation results point out that the ex post reward mechanism is better than the ex ante reward mechanism in forward versus discard; however, the opposite holds true in QoS routing when the expected number of periods is sufficiently large. In addition, this study considers the reward mechanisms and the platform provider's benefit to find the optimal number of supernodes in a transmission path.