Spontaneous smartphone networks as a user-centric solution for the future internet

In this article we focus on a special case of user-centric networks, spontaneous smartvphone-based networks, SSNs, where the role of the end-user devices is played by smartphones that are "evolutionary" and more active in supporting communication services. SSNs present key features like spontaneity in the creation of the network and redefinition of the devices’ role in order to make them continuously adaptive to both network and user requirements. This work is devoted to identifying the potential advantages of SSNs by also providing a clear definition of the challenges and issues that need to be faced in order to make this emerging paradigm effective and practically deployable.