A novel MAC scheme for wireless LANs from the perspective of game theory

In this paper, a novel game theoretic MAC scheme is proposed to improve the performance of IEEE 802.11 DCF in wireless LANs. The channel contention process between the nodes is modelled as a dynamic Bayesian game, called a Multiple Access game. According to the Nash equilibrium of the game, a novel MAC scheme, called G-DCF, is proposed to improve the performance of the legacy DCF. In G-DCF, under saturation conditions (i.e., all nodes always have packets to send), each node adjusts its local contention parameters for data transmission to the current game state (i.e. the number of competing nodes), and thereafter updates the game state through the transmission feedbacks; otherwise, i.e., under non-saturation conditions, a virtual frame scheduling mechanism, called VFS, to keep the game state of the idle nodes in a consistent state, should be incorporated in G-DCF. This process is finitely repeated to get the optimal performance. Simulation results show the new scheme can increase the system throughput and decrease the delay bound and packet-loss-rate.