Game Theory Modeling of Social Psychology Principle for Reliable Multicast Services in WiMax Networks

Abstract

A major challenge in operation of WiMax network is to provide large-scale reliable multicast and broadcast services. The main cause limiting the scalability of such networks is Feedback Implosion, a problem arising when a large number of users transmit their feedback messages through the network, occupying a significant portion of the system resources. Inspired from social psychology, and more specifically from the phenomenon of bystander effect, a novel scheme for the provisioning of large-scale reliable multicast services is proposed. The problem is modeled using game theory. Through simulations of the proposed scheme carried out to evaluate its performance, it is found that the novel approach suppresses feedback messages very effectively, while at the same time, it does not degrade the data transfer timeliness.