Applications of Game Theory in Ad Hoc Networks
Juha Leino · 2003
Ad hoc networks are an emerging networking technology, in which the terminals form a network without any fixed infrastructure. The operation of the network is based on cooperation. Each node forwards traffic of the others. While real life applications have not become common, ad hoc networks are predicted to be applied for example in emergency and rescue operations and military environment. Game theory deals with multiperson decision making, in which each decision maker tries to maximize his utility. Game theory originates from economics, but it has been applied in various fields. In this thesis, we introduce the basic concepts of game theory and its applications in telecommunications. The cooperation of the users is crucial to the operation of ad hoc networks, hence game theory provides a good basis to analyze the networks. We analyze the relationship between a node and the rest of the network from the energy efficiency perspective using game theory. We study how much forwarding effort the network can demand from the node, while it is still beneficial for the node to join the network. We study a situation in which the node either connects to the network or not and a situation in which the node can join the network without participating in the routing in order to save energy. We simulate networks in order to study the characteristics of the nodes that lose energy when joining the network. We examine the number and locations of the nodes losing energy.