Controlled Matching Game for Resource Allocation and User Association in WLANs

In multi-rate IEEE 802.11 WLANs, the traditional user association based on the strongest received signal and the well known anomaly of the MAC protocol can lead to overloaded Access Points (APs), and poor or heterogeneous performance. Our goal is to propose an alternative game-theoretic approach for association. We model the joint resource allocation and user association as a matching game with complementarities and peer effects consisting of selfish players solely interested in their individual throughputs. Using recent game-theoretic results we first show that various resource sharing protocols actually fall in the scope of the set of stability-inducing resource allocation schemes. The game makes an extensive use of the Nash bargaining and some of its related properties that allow to control the incentives of the players. We show that the proposed mechanism can greatly improve the efficiency of 802.11 with heterogeneous nodes and reduce the negative impact of peer effects such as its MAC anomaly. The mechanism can be implemented as a virtual connectivity management layer to achieve efficient APs-user associations without modification of the MAC layer

Controlled Matching Game for User Association and Resource Allocation in Multi-Rate WLANs

International audience—The deployment of IEEE 802.11 based WLANs in populated areas is such that many mobile terminals are covered by several Access Points (APs). These mobiles have the possibility to associate to the AP with the strongest signal (best-RSSI association scheme).This can lead to poor performances and overloaded APs. Moreover, the well known anomaly in the protocol at the MAC layer may also lead to very unpredictable performances and affect the system throughput due to the presence of heterogeneous data rate nodes and the shared nature of the 802.11 medium. The goal of this paper is to propose an alternative approach for the association. We model the joint resource allocation and mobile user association as a matching game with complementarities, peer effects and selfish players 1. We focus on the throughput fairness allocation induced by the saturated regime with equal packet sizes. We propose a novel three-stages mechanism for the modeling and control of load balancing, resource allocation and user association. We show that the proposed mechanism can greatly improve the efficiency of 802.11 with heterogeneous nodes and reduce the negative impact of peer effects such as the anomaly in IEEE 802.11

A Controlled Matching Game for WLANs

International audienceIn multi-rate IEEE 802.11 WLANs, the traditional user association based on the strongest received signal and the well known anomaly of the MAC protocol can lead to overloaded Access Points (APs), and poor or heterogeneous performance. Our goal is to propose an alternative game-theoretic approach for association. We model the joint resource allocation and user association as a matching game with complementarities and peer effects consisting of selfish players solely interested in their individual throughputs. Using recent game-theoretic results we first show that various resource sharing protocols actually fall in the scope of the set of stability-inducing resource allocation schemes. The game makes an extensive use of the Nash bargaining and some of its related properties that allow to control the incentives of the players. We show that the proposed mechanism can greatly improve the efficiency of 802.11 with heterogeneous nodes and reduce the negative impact of peer effects such as its MAC anomaly. The mechanism can be implemented as a virtual connectivity management layer to achieve efficient APs-user associations without modification of the MAC layer

The Last will be First, and the First Last: Segregation in Societies with Relative Payoff Concerns (RM/18/027-revised-)

This paper studies coalition formation among individuals who differ in productivity. The output of a coalition is determined by the sum of the productivities and the size of the coalition. We consider egalitarian societies in which coalitions split their surplus equally and individualistic societies in which the surplus of a coalition is split according to productivity. Preferences of coalition members depend on their material payoffs, but are also influenced by relative payoff concerns, which relate their material payoffs to the average material payoff in the coalition. Our analysis uses two stability notions, the Core and the Myopic Stable Set. The stable partitions in both egalitarian and individualistic societies are segregated, i.e., individuals with adjacent productivities form coalitions. If some individuals are not part of a productive coalition, then these are the least productive ones for egalitarian societies and the most productive ones for individualistic societies. If all individuals have different productivity levels and there are sufficient complementarities in production, egalitarian societies induce more efficiency than individualistic societies

Matching with Externalities

We incorporate externalities into the stable matching theory of two-sided markets. Extending theclassical substitutes condition to markets with externalities, we establish that stable matchings exist whenagent choices satisfy substitutability. We show that substitutability is a necessary condition for the existenceof a stable matching in a maximal-domain sense and provide a characterization of substitutable choicefunctions. In addition, we extend the standard insights of matching theory, like the existence of side-optimal stable matchings and the deferred acceptance algorithm, to settings with externalities even thoughthe standard fixed-point techniques do not appl

Essays on Microeconomic Theory

This dissertation analyzes problems related to matching in general networks and decision under uncertainty. Chapter 1 introduces the framework of convex matching games. Chapter 2 discusses three distinct applications of the framework. Chapter 3 develops a new test of choice models with expected utility. In Chapter 1, I use Scarf's lemma to show that given a convexity structure that I introduce, the core of a matching game is always nonempty, and the framework I introduce can accommodate general contracting networks, multilateral contracts, and complementary preferences. In Chapter 2, I provide three applications to show how the convexity structure is satisfied in different contexts by different assumptions. In the first application, I show that in large economies, the convexity structure is satisfied if the set of participants in each contract is small compared to the overall economy. The second application considers finite economies, and I show that the convexity structure is satisfied if all agents have convex, but not necessarily substitutable, preferences. The third application considers a large-firm, many-to-one matching market with peer preferences, and I show that the convexity structure is satisfied under convexity of preferences and a competition aversion restriction on workers' preferences over colleagues. In Chapter 3, I show that some form of cyclic choice pattern across distinct information scenarios should be regarded as inconsistent with a utility function that is linear in beliefs

Balanced many-to-one matching problems with preferences over colleagues

Matching problems is a well studied class of coalitions formation models. Several core-like type solutions have been proposed for these models. However, unlike what happens in game theory, no balancedness properties have been introduced to study existence problems so far. In this paper we state a balancedness condition on a many-to-one matching problem with preferences over colleagues which turns to be a necessary and sufficient condition to guarantee the non-emptiness of the set of core matchings. We use this result to improve a recent characterization about the existence of core matchings for the classical many-to-one matching problem without preferences over colleagues. Our approach has been carried out by using some techniques and results from the theory of hedonic games, which is another class of coalitions formation models.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Balanced many-to-one matching problems with preferences over colleagues

Matching problems is a well studied class of coalitions formation models. Several core-like type solutions have been proposed for these models. However, unlike what happens in game theory, no balancedness properties have been introduced to study existence problems so far. In this paper we state a balancedness condition on a many-to-one matching problem with preferences over colleagues which turns to be a necessary and sufficient condition to guarantee the non-emptiness of the set of core matchings. We use this result to improve a recent characterization about the existence of core matchings for the classical many-to-one matching problem without preferences over colleagues. Our approach has been carried out by using some techniques and results from the theory of hedonic games, which is another class of coalitions formation models.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

About Joint Stable User Association and Resource Allocation in Multi-Rate IEEE 802.11 WLANs

International audienceThis paper aims at proposing an alternative approach for both the modeling of the IEEE 802.11 resource allocation scheme and the design of mechanisms to reduce the impact of the anomaly of the protocol. We use game theory to model the IEEE 802.11 resource allocation and mobiles users to APs association as a coalition matching game. We propose a new mechanism that gives mobile users and APs the incentive to associate with each others in a way that both absorbs the load and reduce the negative impact of the anomaly in IEEE 802.11