D2D Relay Incenting and Charging Modes That Are Commercially Compatible With B2D Services

Attractive monetary or other kinds of incentives are needed to motivate the relayers in device-to-device (D2D) communications. In this paper, little attention has been paid to D2D charge and incentive mechanisms that are also compatible with prevailing mobile service charging models. To help lay a foundation for commercial applications of the D2D, this paper studies the charge, reward, and penalty modes of D2D communication under operator control. The charge and reward mechanisms of D2D services are analyzed from the perspective of the commercial relationships between operators and end users participating in D2D links, deriving the incentive principles based on which a number of examples of practical reward/penalty and charging modes are presented. For unicast services, the user perception of charging and rewards in a D2D relay service is studied in detail for an end-to-end communication process and a reward and penalty metering method, compatible with a base-station-to-device (B2D) billing mode is analyzed. Specifically, in a typical congestion scenario, the probability of a relayer deliberately disconnecting the D2D is estimated and modeled, and the effect of reward and penalty policies on the reliability of D2D services is analyzed quantitatively. For a directional content multicast service, the process of establishing a D2D relay connection with reward status awareness is presented. Furthermore, the prevalence of free-riding can be reduced by measures such as giving users high reward credits with a higher priority in obtaining B2D and D2D services. Finally, following the derived principles, some segmented D2D application scenarios with commercial or social utility are identified as avenues to promote the commercial use of practical D2D relaying.