CAREER: Game Theoretic Models for Cooperation in Wireless Networks

现代无线网络是复杂的动态系统，它承诺为公众提供互联网接入、新的商业和公共安全服务，以及在任何地点、任何时间有关世界的实时信息。然而，如果没有一个统一的分析框架，无线技术的前景将无法完全实现。这个项目正在探索博弈论的应用，博弈论是一种分析工具，已经成功地解释了复杂的经济系统，为无线网络创建了一个分析框架。具体来说，该项目正在发展一种合作理论，以解释具有不同和有限信息的网络节点如何合作以实现整个网络的目标。该理论基于潜在博弈的博弈论概念，使博弈论在工程应用中更加有用。这一新兴理论正被应用于产生无线网络中控制传输功率和选择编码序列的最佳算法。这项工作有望带来更有效的功率控制和干扰避免算法，从而提高无线网络的性能，并更有效地利用无线电频谱（一种重要的公共资源）。更重要的是，这项研究正在开发基本的分析工具，使其他研究人员能够为各种各样的应用创造更高效、更强大的无线网络。在追求这些重要研究目标的同时，该项目还包括强大的教育组成部分，通过实践活动向K-12学生介绍无线技术，旨在激发他们对电气和计算机工程以及无线通信的兴趣。

Modern wireless networks are complex dynamic systems that promise to provide the public with Internet access, new commercial and public safety services, and real-time information about the world at any location and any time. Without a unifying analytical framework, though, the promises of wireless technology will not be fully realized. This project is exploring the application of game theory, an analysis tool that has been successful in explaining complex economic systems, to create an analytical framework for wireless networks.Specifically, the project is developing a theory of cooperation to explain how network nodes with disparate and limited information can cooperate to achieve network-wide goals. This theory is based on the game-theoretic notion of a potential game, and makes game theory more useful for engineering applications. The nascent theory is being applied to produce optimal algorithms for controlling transmission power and selecting code sequences in a wireless network. This work is expected to lead to more efficient power control and interference avoidance algorithms, thus improving the performance of wireless networks and using radio spectrum (an important public resource) more efficiently. More importantly, though, this research is developing fundamental analytical tools that will enable other researchers to create more efficient and more powerful wireless networks for a wide variety of applications.While pursuing these important research aims, the project also includes strong education components which introduce K-12 students to wireless technology with hands-on activities designed to stimulate interest in electrical and computer engineering and wireless communications.