A GAME THEORETIC PERSPECTIVE TO FLOW-CONTROL IN TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS

Multiple classes of traffic with differing and often conflicting requirements arise in an integrated telecommunications environment as users share the limited existing resources. In this paper, a game theoretic perspective is presented and analysed as the appropriate framework for the study of the flow control problem. Using the notion of power as the performance criterion, we compare a network-Pareto optimal solution-with two user optimal solutions-Nash and Stackelberg equilibria. The appropriateness of each solution is discussed given the operating characteristics of the system. A proposed greedy algorithm is shown to converge to the Nash equilibrium.