Stimulating Participation in Wireless Community Networks

Abstract—Wireless Community Networks (WCNs) are wide-area wireless networks whose nodes are owned and managed by volunteers. We focus on the provision of Internet access to mobile users through WCN-controlled wireless LAN access points (APs). We rely on reciprocity: a person participates in the WCN and provides ‘free ’ Internet access to mobile users in order to enjoy the same benefit when mobile. Our reciprocity scheme is compatible with the distinctive structure of WCNs: it does not require registration with authorities, relying only on uncertified free identities (public-private key pairs). Users sign digital receipts when they consume service. The receipts form a receipt graph, which is used as input to a reciprocity algorithm that identifies contributing users using network flow techniques. Simulations show that this algorithm can sustain reciprocal cooperation. We have implemented our algorithm to run on common APs. I.