Self-organizing Bandwidth Sharing in Priority-Based Medium Access

In this paper, we present an analysis of self-organizing bandwidth sharing in priority-based medium access. For this purpose, the priority-based Access Game is introduced. Analysis shows that a fair distribution of bandwidth cannot be achieved in this game. Therefore, we enhance this game by introducing a constraint that demands a small amount of the overall bandwidth being free. Fair bandwidth sharing is one Nash Equilibrium of this enhanced game, but not a unique one. Based upon this theoretical analysis, a multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm is proposed, where each agent tries to maximize its success rate for accessing the medium, while avoiding to violate the bandwidth constraint. We experimentally evaluate this mechanism for a system comprised of selfish agents. Experimental results show that the system is able to self-organize itself towards a fair distribution of bandwidth in a totally decentralized way without the need of global information or coordination.