Dynamic distributed rate control for wireless networks by optimal Cartel maintenance strategy

In this paper, we consider wireless networks with multiple distributed users. The users transmit their data packets to a communication node via some multi-access protocol. Then the node transmits the packets to a remote destination via a lossy wireless link. The cost for each user´s transmission is modelled as a function of its transmission rate (TR). If a user´s packet is successfully transmitted to the destination, a profit will be obtained. However, this profit is reduced by the transmission contention among users and the lossy wireless channel. Each user controls its TR to maximize its profit in a distributed manner. If no rule is applied for rate control, each user will select a large TR resulting in having a low performance. In order to improve the system performance, we develop a distributed rate control algorithm using an optimal Cartel maintenance strategy. In this strategy, each user prefers to cooperate for rate control, because deviation from cooperation will be punished by other users for a period of time. From the simulation results, we can see that the proposed distributed scheme can enforce the cooperation among users and achieve much better performance than the noncooperative transmission.