Throughput improvement in ALOHA networks with power capture and a cheat-proof access control

In this paper, we consider the problem of power level selections under an average power constraint in slotted ALOHA networks. In the network, each node chooses a power level from a pre-determined power level set based on a probability for each access attempt. The derivation of the probability for maximizing the throughput is difficult. In addition, nodes may not always obey the given algorithm in a distributed network because a misbehaving node might gain better performance at the expense of the others. To prevent the potential of misbehavior, we derive a cheat-proof algorithm based on game theory, which will make no nodes in the network want to deviate from the algorithm. Further, we show the throughput loss of the cheat-proof algorithm compared to the optimal one, and show the occurrence of unjust situation if the property of cheat-proof is not taken into account.