Combining Cooperative With Non-Cooperative Game Theory to Model Wi-Fi Congestion in Apartment Blocks

The unlicensed spectrum utilized by Wi-Fi can be regarded as an economic commons in many deployments. Operators of Wi-Fi-enabled devices are usually non-cooperative, vying for spectral resources when in close range to each other, typically adopting a strategy of maximizing their transmission power....

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Main Authors: Maran Van Heesch, Pascal L. J. Wissink, Ramtin Ranji, Mehdi Nobakht, Frank Den Hartog
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2020-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9051725/
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author Maran Van Heesch
Pascal L. J. Wissink
Ramtin Ranji
Mehdi Nobakht
Frank Den Hartog
author_facet Maran Van Heesch
Pascal L. J. Wissink
Ramtin Ranji
Mehdi Nobakht
Frank Den Hartog
author_sort Maran Van Heesch
collection DOAJ
description The unlicensed spectrum utilized by Wi-Fi can be regarded as an economic commons in many deployments. Operators of Wi-Fi-enabled devices are usually non-cooperative, vying for spectral resources when in close range to each other, typically adopting a strategy of maximizing their transmission power. With an ever-growing number of wireless devices, this will ultimately lead to depletion of the spectrum, unless players collaborate. Previous studies used cooperative game theory to explore various collaboration strategies, enabled by the presence of some central authority or controller that executes an agreed-upon interference mitigation policy. However, the regulatory nature of unlicensed spectrum dictates that players cannot be forced into such collaboration. Most deployments therefore involve a mix of cooperative and non-cooperative players. In this paper, we propose a new way of modeling use cases involving a central authority or controller by combining non-cooperative and cooperative game theory. Our model uses the non-cooperative concept of Nash equilibriums as well as the cooperative concept of Nash bargaining. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to propose a hybrid non-cooperative and cooperative game theoretic model for communication networks that offers the players the opportunity to strategize between non-cooperative and cooperative natures. It is successfully applied to the case of a densely-populated apartment block. The results show that, if only a subset of players joins the collaboration, most of the remaining non-joining players may obtain an SINR that is worse than what they would have obtained in the fully non-cooperative scenario; they are punished for their uncooperative behavior.
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spelling doaj.art-da3e23813fa743589d72127d0514862d2022-12-21T23:26:09ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362020-01-018646036461610.1109/ACCESS.2020.29845359051725Combining Cooperative With Non-Cooperative Game Theory to Model Wi-Fi Congestion in Apartment BlocksMaran Van Heesch0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0135-3521Pascal L. J. Wissink1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6031-6627Ramtin Ranji2Mehdi Nobakht3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4676-536XFrank Den Hartog4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5293-6140TNO, The Hague, JE, The NetherlandsSchool of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, HV, The NetherlandsSchool of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales, Canberra, ACT, AustraliaSchool of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales, Canberra, ACT, AustraliaSchool of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales, Canberra, ACT, AustraliaThe unlicensed spectrum utilized by Wi-Fi can be regarded as an economic commons in many deployments. Operators of Wi-Fi-enabled devices are usually non-cooperative, vying for spectral resources when in close range to each other, typically adopting a strategy of maximizing their transmission power. With an ever-growing number of wireless devices, this will ultimately lead to depletion of the spectrum, unless players collaborate. Previous studies used cooperative game theory to explore various collaboration strategies, enabled by the presence of some central authority or controller that executes an agreed-upon interference mitigation policy. However, the regulatory nature of unlicensed spectrum dictates that players cannot be forced into such collaboration. Most deployments therefore involve a mix of cooperative and non-cooperative players. In this paper, we propose a new way of modeling use cases involving a central authority or controller by combining non-cooperative and cooperative game theory. Our model uses the non-cooperative concept of Nash equilibriums as well as the cooperative concept of Nash bargaining. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to propose a hybrid non-cooperative and cooperative game theoretic model for communication networks that offers the players the opportunity to strategize between non-cooperative and cooperative natures. It is successfully applied to the case of a densely-populated apartment block. The results show that, if only a subset of players joins the collaboration, most of the remaining non-joining players may obtain an SINR that is worse than what they would have obtained in the fully non-cooperative scenario; they are punished for their uncooperative behavior.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9051725/Computer network managementgame theoryinterference suppressionutility theorywireless communication
spellingShingle Maran Van Heesch
Pascal L. J. Wissink
Ramtin Ranji
Mehdi Nobakht
Frank Den Hartog
Combining Cooperative With Non-Cooperative Game Theory to Model Wi-Fi Congestion in Apartment Blocks
IEEE Access
Computer network management
game theory
interference suppression
utility theory
wireless communication
title Combining Cooperative With Non-Cooperative Game Theory to Model Wi-Fi Congestion in Apartment Blocks
title_full Combining Cooperative With Non-Cooperative Game Theory to Model Wi-Fi Congestion in Apartment Blocks
title_fullStr Combining Cooperative With Non-Cooperative Game Theory to Model Wi-Fi Congestion in Apartment Blocks
title_full_unstemmed Combining Cooperative With Non-Cooperative Game Theory to Model Wi-Fi Congestion in Apartment Blocks
title_short Combining Cooperative With Non-Cooperative Game Theory to Model Wi-Fi Congestion in Apartment Blocks
title_sort combining cooperative with non cooperative game theory to model wi fi congestion in apartment blocks
topic Computer network management
game theory
interference suppression
utility theory
wireless communication
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9051725/
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