On the impact of selfish behaviors in wireless packet scheduling

In many practical scenarios, wireless devices are autonomous and thus, may exhibit non-cooperative behaviors due to self-interests. For instance, a wireless user may report bogus channel information to gain resource allocation advantages. Such non-cooperative behaviors are practicable as the device's software could be modified by the user. In this paper, we first analyze the impact of these rationally selfish behaviors on the performance of packet scheduling algorithms in time-slotted wireless networks. Using a mixed strategy game theoretic model, we show that the traditional Maximum Rate packet scheduling algorithm can lead non-cooperative users to undesirable Nash equilibriums, in which the wireless channels are used inefficiently. By using repeated game to enforce cooperation, we further propose a novel game theoretic approach that can lead to an efficient equilibrium. ©2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Efficient wireless packet scheduling in a non-cooperative environment: Game theoretic analysis and algorithms

In many practical scenarios, wireless devices are autonomous and thus, may exhibit non-cooperative behaviors due to self-interests. For instance, a wireless cellular device may be programmed to report bogus channel information to gain resource allocation advantages. Such non-cooperative behaviors are highly probable as the device's software can be modified by the user. In this paper, we first analyze the impact of these rationally selfish behaviors on the performance of packet scheduling algorithms in time-slotted wireless networks. Using a mixed strategy game model, we show that the traditional maximum rate packet scheduling algorithm can cause non-cooperative devices to converge to highly inefficient Nash equilibria, in which the wireless channel resources are significantly wasted. By using a repeated game to enforce cooperation, we further propose a novel game theoretic algorithm that can lead to an efficient equilibrium. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.postprin

Applications of Repeated Games in Wireless Networks: A Survey

A repeated game is an effective tool to model interactions and conflicts for players aiming to achieve their objectives in a long-term basis. Contrary to static noncooperative games that model an interaction among players in only one period, in repeated games, interactions of players repeat for multiple periods; and thus the players become aware of other players' past behaviors and their future benefits, and will adapt their behavior accordingly. In wireless networks, conflicts among wireless nodes can lead to selfish behaviors, resulting in poor network performances and detrimental individual payoffs. In this paper, we survey the applications of repeated games in different wireless networks. The main goal is to demonstrate the use of repeated games to encourage wireless nodes to cooperate, thereby improving network performances and avoiding network disruption due to selfish behaviors. Furthermore, various problems in wireless networks and variations of repeated game models together with the corresponding solutions are discussed in this survey. Finally, we outline some open issues and future research directions.Comment: 32 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, 168 reference

Thwarting Selfish Behavior in 802.11 WLANs

The 802.11e standard enables user configuration of several MAC parameters, making WLANs vulnerable to users that selfishly configure these parameters to gain throughput. In this paper we propose a novel distributed algorithm to thwart such selfish behavior. The key idea of the algorithm is for honest stations to react, upon detecting a selfish station, by using a more aggressive configuration that penalizes this station. We show that the proposed algorithm guarantees global stability while providing good response times. By conducting a game theoretic analysis of the algorithm based on repeated games, we also show its effectiveness against selfish stations. Simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithm optimizes throughput performance while discouraging selfish behavior. We also present an experimental prototype of the proposed algorithm demonstrating that it can be implemented on commodity hardware.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, journa

Relay auction algorithms for downlink bandwidth allocation in IEEE 802.16-based OFDM/TDMA wireless mesh networks

In this paper, we study the problem of downlink bandwidth allocation in a non-cooperative IEEE 802.16 OFDM/TDMA based wireless mesh network, and propose an auction based framework in which the gateway, equipped with the precious high speed Internet connection, serves as the auctioneer while the first-level mesh routers (MRs) (i.e., those with direct wireless connections to the gateway) act as bidders competing resources among each other. We then present two novel relay auction (RA) approaches to allocate time-slots among MRs and analyze the bidding strategy using the solution concept of Nash equilibrium. Through simulations, we find that the proposed RA algorithms can achieve competitive performance in terms of resource allocation efficiency compared with Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) approaches, while having the capability to strike a proper balance between efficiency and fairness by adjusting the payment function. Specifically, with a smaller payment parameter value, the RA algorithms can also achieve much better connection blocking probability performance than VCG algorithms.published_or_final_versionThe 4th International Conference on Communications and Networking in China (ChinaCOM 2009), Xian, China, 26-28 August 2009. In Proceedings of ChinaCOM, 2009, p. 1-

Correlated Node Behavior Model based on Semi Markov Process for MANETS

This paper introduces a new model for node behavior namely Correlated Node Behavior Model which is an extension of Node Behavior Model. The model adopts semi Markov process in continuous time which clusters the node that has correlation. The key parameter of the process is determined by five probabilistic parameters based on the Markovian model. Computed from the transition probabilities of the semi-Markov process, the node correlation impact on network survivability and resilience can be measure quantitatively. From the result, the quantitative analysis of correlated node behavior on the survivability is obtained through mathematical description, and the effectiveness and rationality of the proposed model are verified through numerical analysis. The analytical results show that the effect from correlated failure nodes on network survivability is much severer than other misbehaviors.Comment: IJCSI Volume 9, Issue 1, January 201

Interference Mitigation in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks with Advanced Physical-Layer Techniques

In my dissertation, we focus on the wireless network coexistence problem with advanced physical-layer techniques. For the first part, we study the problem of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN)s coexisting with cross-technology interference (CTI). WBANs face the RF cross-technology interference (CTI) from non-protocol-compliant wireless devices. Werst experimentally characterize the adverse effect on BAN caused by the CTI sources. Then we formulate a joint routing and power control (JRPC) problem, which aims at minimizing energy consumption while satisfying node reachability and delay constraints. We reformulate our problem into a mixed integer linear programing problem (MILP) and then derive the optimal results. A practical JRPC protocol is then proposed. For the second part, we study the coexistence of heterogeneous multi-hop networks with wireless MIMO. We propose a new paradigm, called cooperative interference mitigation (CIM), which makes it possible for disparate networks to cooperatively mitigate the interference to/from each other to enhance everyone\u27s performance. We establish two tractable models to characterize the CIM behaviors of both networks by using full IC (FIC) and receiver-side IC (RIC) only. We propose two bi-criteria optimization problems aiming at maximizing both networks\u27 throughput, while cooperatively canceling the interference between them based on our two models. In the third and fourth parts, we study the coexistence problem with MIMO from a different point of view: the incentive of cooperation. We propose a novel two-round game framework, based on which we derive two networks\u27 equilibrium strategies and the corresponding closed-form utilities. We then extend our game-theoretical analysis to a general multi-hop case, specifically the coexistence problem between primary network and multi-hop secondary network in the cognitive radio networks domain. In the final part, we study the benefits brought by reconfigurable antennas (RA). We systematically exploit the pattern diversity and fast reconfigurability of RAs to enhance the throughput of MWNs. Werst propose a novel link-layer model that captures the dynamic relations between antenna pattern, link coverage and interference. Based on our model, a throughput optimization framework is proposed by jointly considering pattern selection and link scheduling, which is formulated as a mixed integer non-linear programming problem

Correlated Node Behavior Model based on Semi Markov Process for MANETS

This paper introduces a new model for node behavior namely Correlated Node Behavior Model which is an extension of Node Behavior Model. The model adopts semi Markov process in continuous time which clusters the node that has correlation. The key parameter of the process is determined by five probabilistic parameters based on the Markovian model. Computed from the transition probabilities of the semi-Markov process, the node correlation impact on network survivability and resilience can be measure quantitatively. From the result, the quantitative analysis of correlated node behavior on the survivability is obtained through mathematical description, and the effectiveness and rationality of the proposed model are verified through numerical analysis. The analytical results show that the effect from correlated failure nodes on network survivability is much severer than other misbehaviors