Abstract
Cooperation among network devices is a promising approach to improve network throughput and network service quality. In addition, it can be used to enhance network survivability against failures. In this paper, we study a cooperative multi-path routing solution for wireless Users Equipment (UEs)' streaming applications. We assume that UEs use multi-path transport layer service, and establish two paths for streaming, one path goes through its cellular link, and the other path is established using a Wi-Fi connection with a neighbor UE. We study a user coordinated multi-path routing solution with two different energy cost functions, a Linear Cost Function (LCF) and Energy As the Cost (EAC) and design user cooperative real-time optimization and failure protection operations for the streaming application. To stimulate UEs to participate in the user cooperation operation, we design a credit system enabled by an auction mechanism. We compare the performance of user cooperation schemes to the non-cooperative scheme, and using simulation results show that applying the proposed user cooperation scheme and establishing multi-path connections for streaming has an advantage in improving the service rate and streaming success rate, and reduces energy consumption compared to non-cooperation solutions. User cooperation scheme with LCF energy cost function can also help balance the energy consumption among UEs in the system compared to user cooperation scheme with EAC energy cost function.