DataSpotting: offloading cellular traffic via managed device-to-device data transfer at data spots

Abstract

Mobile broadband demand keeps growing at an overwhelming pace. Though emerging wireless technologies will provide more bandwidth, the increase in demand may easily consume the extra bandwidth. To alleviate this problem, we propose using the content available on individual devices as caches. Particularly, when a user reaches areas with dense clusters of mobile devices, "data spots", the operator can instruct the user to connect with other users sharing similar interests and serve the requests locally. This paper presents feasibility study as well as prototype implementation of this idea.