Strategic access in a Green IoT(Internet of Things) system with an unreliable server

Abstract

The present research aims to study the strategic behaviour of users in an Internet of Things(IoT) system that is impeded by an unreliable server. In the system, an IoT device is equipped with an energy harvesting unit. The IoT system under study is employed as a Markovian retrial queueing system that is used in a single server, subject to active failures. The failed server is repaired immediately, while the user who was served before the system’s breakdown event waits in the server until the server is repaired. The generating function approach is used to identify important system performance metrics. Moreover, queueing theory concepts are incorporated into game theory for the analysis of the users’ strategies. The users in the IoT system, act to maximize their expected benefit without being perturbed by other users in the system and determine their equilibrium joining strategies. Furthermore, taking into account social welfare factors, the IoT device acts as a social planner, and as a consequence, socially optimal joining strategies are also analysed. Finally, the analytical findings are validated with numerical examples.