An economic model for bandwidth allocation in broadband communication networks

Abstract

This paper originates an economic model for pursuing bandwidth allocation in broadband communication networks (with particular reference to multimedia communication). A user, who requests a certain type of connection service, will consume network resources (e.g. bandwidth). Each connection is associated with quality-of-service (QoS) requirement. A utility is defined for each user which reflects his satisfaction level over QoS provided by the network. Some reasonable assumptions are made on this utility. Then we formulate the bandwidth allocation of one ATM component into virtual paths (VPs) as a noncooperative game. Each VP requests the amount of bandwidth such that its users' satisfaction will be maximized. Two cases, namely unconstrained and constrained, are considered. On the other hand, the problem may be formulated as a cooperative game. The objective is to find an optimal bandwidth allocation such that the total utility of one ATM component will be maximized. Alternatively, the objective is to maximize the minimum utility among ATM VPs. It is shown that these two game problems may have the same solution for unconstrained case.