Cooperative game theory as a strategy of resource optimization in PLC networks

摘要

The communications standard for powerline HomePlug AV (HPAV) uses CSMA/CA and TDMA as media access mechanism, where CSMA/CA is designed for transmitting data packets, while TDMA is used for voice and video packets transmission, in order to provide adequate levels of QoS [1]. However, although HPAV can achieve high rates of transmission, it does not have an adequate mechanism for resources allocating, which greatly affects the performance of the network as the number of users increases because to the fact that only one node can transmit at the same time [2]. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the behavior of four techniques: Shapley Value, Nucleolus, Max-min Fairness and MmQoS; as strategy for resources allocating in a channel PLC, when considering the HAN network as a cooperative game of transferable Utility. To make an efficient comparison of the four methods of optimization, it proposes the use of two HAN network scenarios under conditions of saturation. In each scenario it will be applied the four resource optimization methods and by Dunnett's test it will identify what or what methods, or treatments yield the best results during the evaluation process. Upon completion of the analysis of the results, it is concluded that, for the proposed scenarios the value of Shapley was the technique that made a better allocation of BW, to minimize the difference between the BW requested value and BW value assigned to each node, with 95% confidence.