Extending Routing Games to Flows over Time

Sébastien Soudan (1, 2) , Dinil Mon Divakaran (1) , Eitan Altman (3) , Pascale Primet (1, 2)

1 RESO - Protocols and softwares for very high-performance network
2 LIP - Laboratoire de l'Informatique du Parallélisme
3 MAESTRO - Models for the performance analysis and the control of networks

Routing game presents an interesting framework to analyse the practical problem of source routing in the Internet. It is particularly useful in quantifying the inefficiency of selfish user behavior that results in any transportation network without any central authority. This game assumes that the only user criteria for decision making is path cost. In this work, we take a step further, and model a routing game where user decision is based not only on path but also on time. We show that, under convex cost functions, this new routing game over time can be mapped to the classical routing game, thereby presenting a model that can exploit well-established results in the subject. Using a simple example, we demonstrate the usefulness of the model, and motivate the need for resource coordination to minimize inefficiency or cost.

Keywords: Routing games

Domains: Networking and Internet Architecture [cs.NI]

Sébastien Soudan, Dinil Mon Divakaran, Eitan Altman, Pascale Primet. Extending Routing Games to Flows over Time. [Research Report] RR-6931, INRIA. 2009. ⟨inria-00383573⟩