On Game Theoretic Rate-Maximizing Packet Scheduling in Non-Cooperative Wireless Networks

In many practical scenarios, wireless devices are autonomous and thus, may exhibit non-cooperative behaviors due to self interests. For instance, a wireless user may report bogus channel information in order to gain resource allocation advantages. In this paper, we analyzed the impact of these rationally selfish and non-cooperative behaviors on the performance of packet scheduling algorithms in time-slotted wireless networks. Using a mixed strategy game theoretic model, we found that the traditional rate maximizing packet scheduling algorithms can lead non-cooperative devices to undesirable Nash equilibria, in which the wireless channel is used inefficiently. Motivated by this observation, we proposed a novel game theoretic scheduling approach that can lead to more efficient equilibria where all competing devices can achieve higher rates.