Controlled Matching Game for Resource Allocation and User Association in WLANs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a game-theoretic approach to user association in WLANs, aiming to improve resource allocation efficiency and mitigate MAC anomalies without altering existing protocols.

Contribution

It proposes a novel matching game model incorporating peer effects and Nash bargaining to optimize user association and resource sharing in WLANs.

Findings

Significantly improves WLAN efficiency with heterogeneous nodes

Reduces negative peer effects and MAC anomalies

Can be implemented without modifying MAC layer protocols

Abstract

In multi-rate IEEE 802.11 WLANs, the traditional user association based on the strongest received signal and the well known anomaly of the MAC protocol can lead to overloaded Access Points (APs), and poor or heterogeneous performance. Our goal is to propose an alternative game-theoretic approach for association. We model the joint resource allocation and user association as a matching game with complementarities and peer effects consisting of selfish players solely interested in their individual throughputs. Using recent game-theoretic results we first show that various resource sharing protocols actually fall in the scope of the set of stability-inducing resource allocation schemes. The game makes an extensive use of the Nash bargaining and some of its related properties that allow to control the incentives of the players. We show that the proposed mechanism can greatly improve the efficiency of 802.11 with heterogeneous nodes and reduce the negative impact of peer effects such as its MAC anomaly. The mechanism can be implemented as a virtual connectivity management layer to achieve efficient APs-user associations without modification of the MAC layer.