Random Access Game and Medium Access Control Design

We study the contention/interaction among wireless nodes and med -ium access control design in game theory framework. We define a general class of games, called random access games, to capture the contention/interaction among wireless nodes in a single-cell wireless LAN with contention-based medium access. We characterize Nash equilibria of random access games, study their dynamics and propose algorithms (strategy evolutions) to achieve Nash equilibria. This provides a general analytical framework that is capable of modelling a large class of system-wide quality of services models via the specification of per-node utility functions. We show that system-wide fairness or service differentiation can be achieved in a distributed manner as long as each node executes a contention resolution algorithm that is designed to approach Nash equilibrium. Based on the understanding of the equilibrium and dynamics of random access games, we propose a novel medium access method derived from CSMA/CA in...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: TON
• Authors: Lijun Chen, Steven H. Low, John C. Doyle
• Keywords: Conditional Collision Probability, Medium Access, Random Access Game, TON 2010