Fair Optimization -- Methodological Foundations of Fairness in Network Resource Allocation

Network resource allocation problems are concerned with the allocation of limited resources among competing entities so as to respect some fairness rules while looking for the overall efficiency. This paper presents the methodology of fair optimization representing inequality averse optimization rather than strict inequality minimization as foundation of fairness in resource allocation. Commonly applied in network resource allocation Max-Min Fairness or the lexicographic maxim in optimization are the most widely known concepts of fair optimization. Alternative models of fair optimization are discussed showing that they generate all the classical fair solution concepts as special cases. However, the concepts of fair optimization can be effectively used to generate various fair and efficient resource allocation schemes.