Efficiency through disinformation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how disinformation affects resource allocation among selfish agents, revealing a tradeoff between reducing oscillations and increasing fluctuations, with implications for system stability.

Contribution

It introduces a model analyzing the effects of global and local disinformation on load oscillations and system stability in resource allocation.

Findings

Disinformation can reduce load oscillations under certain conditions.

Disinformation increases fluctuations and reduces system adaptability.

Tradeoffs depend on disinformation type and system parameters.

Abstract

We study the impact of disinformation on a model of resource allocation with independent selfish agents: clients send requests to one of two servers, depending on which one is perceived as offering shorter waiting times. Delays in the information about the servers' state leads to oscillations in load. Servers can give false information about their state (global disinformation) or refuse service to individual clients (local disinformation). We discuss the tradeoff between positive effects of disinformation (attenuation of oscillations) and negative effects (increased fluctuations and reduced adaptability) for different parameter values.