Equilibrium of heterogeneous congestion control: Existence and uniqueness

Ao Tang, Jiantao Wang, Steven H. Low, Mung Chiang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

When heterogeneous congestion control protocols that react to different pricing signals share the same network, the resulting equilibrium may no longer be interpreted as a solution to the standard utility maximization problem. We prove the existence of equilibrium in general multiprotocol networks under mild assumptions. For almost all networks, the equilibria are locally unique, finite, and odd in number. They cannot all be locally stable unless there is a globally unique equilibrium. Finally, we show that if the price mapping functions, which map link prices to effective prices observed by the sources, are sufficiently similar, then global uniqueness is guaranteed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)824-837
Number of pages14
JournalIEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Keywords

  • Congestion control
  • Equilibrium analysis
  • Heterogeneous protocols
  • Optimization

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Equilibrium of heterogeneous congestion control: Existence and uniqueness'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this