Medium access control game with an enhanced physical-link layer interface

Abstract

We consider distributed medium access control in a wireless network where each link layer user (transmitter) is equipped with multiple transmission options as opposed to the classical binary options of transmitting/idling. In each time slot, a user randomly chooses a transmission option according to a "transmission probability vector". Packets sent by the users are either received or lost depending on whether reliable decoding is supported by the communication channel. We propose a game theoretic model for distributed medium access control where each user adapts its transmission probability vector to maximize a utility function. Condition under which the medium access control game has a unique Nash equilibrium is obtained. Simulation results show that, when multiple transmission options are provided, users in a distributed network tend to converge to channel sharing schemes that are consistent with the well-known information theoretic understandings.

A Generalized Channel Coding Theory for Distributed Communication

“…How to exploit multiple transmission options to improve the efficiency of medium access control is a problem that received little attention before. An early investigation on link layer communication adaptation with an enhanced physical-link layer interface was reported only recently in [14].…”

“…Recently, it was shown in [12] that, with the help of constant composition codes at the transmitters and maximum mutual information decoder [13] at the receiver, decoding error exponent of the random multiple access system can be further improved to possess an interesting decoupling property [12]. Early investigation on the impact of the new channel coding framework on medium access control of distributed wireless networks was reported in [14].…”