Game theory in communications: motivation, explanation, and application to power control

Abstract

Game theory is a set of tools developed to model interactions between agents with conflicting interests, and is thus well-suited to address some problems in communications systems. In this paper we present some of the basic concepts of game theory and show why it is an appropriate tool for analyzing some communication problems and providing insights into how communication systems should be designed. We then provided a detailed example in which game theory is applied to the power control problem in a CDMA-like system.

Energy Efficient Power Control in Impulse Radio UWB Wireless Networks

“…Recently, game theory has been used as an effective tool to study noncooperative power control in data networks [1]- [8]. The advantages of noncooperative (distributed) approaches with respect to a cooperative (centralized) approach are mainly due to the scalability of the network.…”

“…Many of the problems to be solved in a communications system are in fact known to be NP-hard. As a consequence, real-time solution of these optimization problems in a centralized fashion becomes infeasible as the network size increases and as the number of users varies [1]. Game theory is the natural framework for modeling and studying these kinds of interactions.…”

Integrated Cyber-Physical Simulation of Intelligent Water Distribution Networks

“…For instance, hedging rules have been utilized to minimize the impact of drought by effectively reducing the ongoing water supply to balance the target storage requirement Tu et al (2003). Applications of game theory include optimization of rate control in video coding Ahmad & Luo (2006), allocation of power in frequency-selective unlicensed bands Xu et al (2008), and power control in communications MacKenzie & Wicker (2001). Most relevant to this book Integrated Cyber-Physical Simulation of Intelligent Water Distribution Networks www.intechopen.com chapter is the use of game theory in analyzing water resources for optimal allocation .…”

A New Pricing Function for Power Control Game in Wireless Data Networks

“…Game theory can be used for analyzing the interaction of some decision makers with conflicting objectives. Another reason that makes the game theory an appealing tool for PC problem is that it is based on distributed solutions, which is an important factor for any PC algorithm to be scalable and easily implementable [5].…”