A novel path discovery process based on iterated prisoner's dilemma in wireless mesh network

Iterated prisoner's dilemma is a famous dilemma of game theory. The TFT (Tit for tat) strategy is the best solution of this dilemma. In this paper, a novel routing algorithm based on iterated prisoner's dilemma is proposed for multi-rate wireless mesh network. Users of networks usually are selfish. In order to inspirit these selfish users to cooperated with each other, a new conception, named consanguinity, was been proposed. While in the process of path discovery, a node forwards a RREQ packet whether or not depends on the benefit it would gain. This action has an impact on consanguinity of related nodes. The nodes with higher consanguinity are glad to help the requestor to forward RREQ. Simulation result shows that the approach can improve the performance effectively.