Prometheus: LT Codes Meet Cooperative Transmission in Cellular Networks

Abstract: Following fast growth of cellular networks, more users have drawn attention to the contradiction between dynamic user data traffic and static data plans. To address this important but largely unexplored issue, in this paper, we design a new data plan sharing system named Prometheus, which is based on the scenario that some smartphone users have surplus data traffic and are willing to help others download data. To realize this system, we first propose a mechanism that incorporates LT codes into UDP. It is robust to transmission errors and encourages more concurrent transmissions and forwardings. It also can be implemented easily with low implementation complexity. Then we design an incentive mechanism using a Stackelberg game to choose assistant users ($AUs$), all participants will gain credits in return, which can be used to ask for future help when they need to download something. Finally real environment experiments are conducted and the results show that users in our Prometheus not only can manage their surplus data plan more efficiently, but also achieve a higher speed download rate.