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arXiv · 2001.08850

A Non-Cooperative Multiple Access Game for Timely Updates

Sneihil Gopal·Sanjit K. Kaul·Rakesh Chaturvedi·Sumit Roy
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Abstract

We consider a network of selfish nodes that would like to minimize the age of their updates at the other nodes. The nodes send their updates over a shared spectrum using a CSMA/CA based access mechanism. We model the resulting competition as a non-cooperative one-shot multiple access game and investigate equilibrium strategies for two distinct medium access settings (a) collisions are shorter than successful transmissions and (b) collisions are longer. We investigate competition in a CSMA/CA slot, where a node may choose to transmit or stay idle. We find that medium access settings exert strong incentive effects on the nodes. We show that when collisions are shorter, transmit is a weakly dominant strategy. This leads to all nodes transmitting in the CSMA/CA slot, therefore guaranteeing a collision. In contrast, when collisions are longer, no weakly dominant strategy exists and under certain conditions on the ages at the beginning of the slot, we derive the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium.

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Sneihil Gopal, Sanjit K. Kaul, Rakesh Chaturvedi, Sumit Roy. 2020-01-23. A Non-Cooperative Multiple Access Game for Timely Updates. https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.08850

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