NeTS: Small: PTERA: Prospect Theory Enhanced Resource Allocation

许多实证研究表明，人类评估效用的方式与效用理论不一致。累积前景理论由诺贝尔经济学奖获得者丹尼尔·卡尼曼（Daniel Kahneman）及其合作者阿莫斯·特沃斯基（Amos Tversky）开创，提供了一个框架，其中包括作为特例的效用理论，该理论能够捕捉到人们在面临选择时的各种实际观察到的行为。这个项目开发的前景理论模型的影响，人类如何评估的一些通信网络的核心问题的背景下的选择。该项目研究如何通信网络协议可能需要修改时，选择的评估是由前景理论的最终用户。预计这项研究可能会产生更好的网络协议，改善最终用户体验。在累积前景理论中，收益和损失是相对于参考来衡量的。为了使理论与经验观察到的行为相一致，用于评估收益和损失的函数对于收益是凹的，对于损失是凸的，并且损失的斜率大于参考附近的收益。一个前景是一个可能的收益或损失的列表，每一个都有一定的概率。向用户呈现前景，并将其建模为通过累积前景理论的规则来评估它们，该理论还涉及相对于大概率对小概率进行加权的加权函数。这个项目的重点是两个具体的，广泛适用的，非常重要的问题类在通信网络。其中一个问题是如何激励用户遵循最佳实践来保护连接到网络的个人设备。该项目研究如何设计向用户展示的适当前景，以实现更安全、更安全、更有弹性的网络目标。第二个问题是弹性用户在网络中的资源分配问题。该项目研究如何设计TCP类协议，向后兼容现有协议，但这将提高预期理论用户的感知效用，同时仍然使用相同的网络资源。通过权衡弹性用户的用户体验与所使用的网络资源，该项目还开发了提高非弹性用户性能的方法。更广泛的影响：决策技术和博弈论技术为研究人类如何与技术系统以及相互之间进行交互的广泛学科提供了基础。除了通信网络之外，这类学科的例子包括经济学和金融学。该项目的成果在这些学科中具有更广泛的影响，因为在本研究中开发了累积前景理论研究的新方法，这些方法可用于与这些学科相关的类似场景的分析和设计。该项目也有一个重要的教育组成部分，包括培训研究生，并为本科生提供一个平台，有一个研究经验。在这个项目中开发的研究将被纳入随机系统的估计和控制课程的课程，预计将影响网络经济学课程，两者都在伯克利分校任教。该研究为本科生项目提供了机会，特别是通过伯克利EECS部门的举措，通过邀请不同群体的本科生在夏季参加教师的研究计划，促进多样性和包容性。

Numerous empirical studies have shown that humans evaluate utilities in ways that are not consistent with utility theory. Cumulative prospect theory, pioneered by the Nobel prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman, and his collaborator, Amos Tversky, provides a framework, including utility theory as a special case, which is able to capture a wide range of actually observed human behaviors when faced with choices. This project develops the implications of prospect theoretic models for how humans evaluate choice in the context of some of the core problems of communication networking. The project studies how communication networking protocols may need to be modified when the evaluation of choice is done by prospect-theoretic end users. It is expected that better network protocols that improve the end-user experience could be a result of this research. In cumulative prospect theory, gains and losses are measured relative to a reference. In order to make the theory consistent with empirically observed behavior the function used to evaluate gains and losses is concave for gains and convex for losses, with a larger slope for losses than for gains near the reference. A prospect is a list of possible gains or losses, each with a certain probability. Users are presented with prospects and modeled as evaluating them via the rules of cumulative prospect theory, which also involve weighting functions that overweight small probabilities relative to large probabilities. This project focuses on two specific, widely applicable, and highly important problem classes in communication networking. One of these is the question of how to incentivize users to follow best practices to secure their individual devices that are connected to the network. The project studies how to design the appropriate prospects to present to the users to achieve the goal of a better secured and therefore safer and more resilient network. The second of these is the problem of resource allocation in the network for elastic users. The project studies how to design TCP-like protocols that are backward compatible with the existing ones, but that will improve the perceived utility for prospect-theoretic users while still working with the same network resources. By trading off user experience of elastic users with the network resources used, this project also develops ways to improve the performance for inelastic users. Broader Impacts: Techniques for decision making and game theoretic techniques provide the underpinnings for a broad range of disciplines that study how humans interact with technological systems and with each other. Apart from communication networking, examples of such disciplines include economics and finance. The outcomes of this project have broader impact in these disciplines, because novel methodologies for cumulative prospect theory research that can be used for analysis and design in similar scenarios that are relevant to these individual disciplines are developed in this research. This project also has a significant educational component, including training graduate students and providing a platform for undergraduates to have a research experience. The research developed in this project will be incorporated into the curriculum of the course on estimation and control of stochastic systems and is expected to impact the course on network economics, both taught at Berkeley. The research provides opportunities for undergraduate projects, in particular through the Berkeley EECS departmental initiatives that foster diversity and inclusion by inviting a diverse group of undergraduates during the summers to participate in the research programs of the faculty members.