This means that nodes must be willing to forward traffic for other nodes, and in the process spend energy for no direct benefit. If a node only considers its own short-lived period, as they themselves operate on low power battery devices, then it may not choose to participate within the network. Thus the concept of introducing a measure which can force the participation of nodes for collaboration into the architecture of mobile networks is an important aspect to be seen.

The combination of nodes must be able to focus on the dynamics of the nature of ad-hoc networks and must also be able to take many similar factors into account. This fact leads us to the situation where various pricing mechanisms have found application in rate control in static networks. However, the difference in this situation is that nodes recover costs associated with energy losses and traffic loading at a particular time through the credit arising from pricing mechanisms. Moreover, determining energy efficient routes is also an important consideration in mobile ad-hoc networks and pricing mechanisms can provide a means of guiding a system of nodes to its optimal operating path.

Despite numerous benefits and advantages which mobile ad-hoc networks offer the wireless industry and network users, mobile ad-hoc networks lack a suitable solution which can assist participating nodes in deciding when and how a node can help any other node without putting itself in a dangerous state. Where routing is itself a big challenge in this area, a better organization guideline can be a supporting initiative in inventing a power efficient routing mechanism for this type of networking.

Mike Serbinis is CTO of Critical Path. Critical Path developed Memova Mobile, a solution for the mass market that pushes messages from the users' existing email accounts, such as Gmail or ISP email accounts, to their cell phones. Memova Mobile works on any MMS handset and allows users to select the email addresses they want to hear from.