skip to main content
article

Algorithms for pure Nash equilibria in weighted congestion games

Published: 09 February 2007 Publication History

Abstract

In large-scale or evolving networks, such as the Internet, there is no authority possible to enforce a centralized traffic management. In such situations, game theory, and especially the concepts of Nash equilibria and congestion games [Rosenthal 1973] are a suitable framework for analyzing the equilibrium effects of selfish routes selection to network delays. We focus here on single-commodity networks where selfish users select paths to route their loads (represented by arbitrary integer weights). We assume that individual link delays are equal to the total load of the link. We then focus on the algorithm suggested in Fotakis et al. [2005], i.e., a potential-based method for finding pure Nash equilibria in such networks. A superficial analysis of this algorithm gives an upper bound on its time, which is polynomial in n (the number of users) and the sum of their weights W. This bound can be exponential in n when some weights are exponential. We provide strong experimental evidence that this algorithm actually converges to a pure Nash equilibrium in polynomial time. More specifically, our experimental findings suggest that the running time is a polynomial function of n and log W. In addition, we propose an initial allocation of users to paths that dramatically accelerates this algorithm, compared to an arbitrary initial allocation. A by-product of our research is the discovery of a weighted potential function when link delays are exponential to their loads. This asserts the existence of pure Nash equilibria for these delay functions and extends the result of Fotakis et al. [2005].

References

[1]
Even-Dar, E., Kesselman, A., and Mansour, Y. 2003. Convergence time to Nash equilibria. In ICALP. 502--513.
[2]
Fabrikant, A., Papadimitriou, C. H., and Talwar, K. 2004. The complexity of pure Nash equilibria. In Proc. of the 36th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing. 281--290.
[3]
Feldmann, R., Gairing, M., Lücking, T., Monien, B., and Rode, M. 2003. Nashification and the coordination ratio for a selfish routing game. In ICALP. 514--526.
[4]
Fotakis, D., Kontogiannis, S., Koutsoupias, E., Mavronicolas, M., and Spirakis, P. 2002. The structure and complexity of Nash equilibria for a selfish routing game. In Proc. of the 29th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming. 123--134.
[5]
Fotakis, D., Kontogiannis, S., and Spirakis, P. 2005. Selfish unsplittable flows. In Theoretical Computer Science (TCS) 348, 2--3 (Dec.), 129--366. Preliminary version in the 31st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP'04), pp. 593--605, 2004.
[6]
Fotakis, D., Kontogiannis, S., and Spirakis, P. 2006. Symmetry in network congestion games: Pure equilibria and anarchy cost. Workshop on Approximation and online Algorithms - WAOA'05, LNCS 3879, pp. 161--175.
[7]
Gairing, M., Lücking, T., Mavronicolas, M., and Monien, B. 2004. Computing Nash equilibria for scheduling on restricted parallel links. In Proc. the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing. 613--622.
[8]
Libman, L. and Orda, A. 1997. Atomic resource sharing in noncooperative networks. In INFOCOM. 1006--1013.
[9]
Mehlhorn, K. and Naher, S. 1999. LEDA: A Platform for Combinatorial and Geometric Computing. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
[10]
Milchtaich, I. 1996. Congestion games with player-specific payoff functions. Games and Economic Behavior 13, 111--124.
[11]
Monderer, D. and Shapley, L. 1996. Potential games. Games and Economic Behavior 14, 124--143.
[12]
Nash, J. F. 1950. Equilibrium points in n-person games. Proc. of National Academy of Sciences 36, 48--49.
[13]
Rosenthal, R. W. 1973. A class of games poseessing pure-strategy Nash equilibria. International Journal of Game Theory 2, 65--67.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Equilibrium computation in multidimensional congestion gamesProceedings of the Fortieth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence10.5555/3702676.3702758(1751-1779)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Computing Nash Equilibria in Multidimensional Congestion GamesProceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems10.5555/3635637.3663143(2309-2311)Online publication date: 6-May-2024
  • (2024)Nash Equilibria in Two-Resource Congestion Games with Player-Specific Payoff FunctionsGames10.3390/g1502000715:2(7)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2024
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics
ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics  Volume 11, Issue
2006
355 pages
ISSN:1084-6654
EISSN:1084-6654
DOI:10.1145/1187436
Issue’s Table of Contents

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 09 February 2007
Published in JEA Volume 11

Author Tags

  1. Congestion games
  2. game theory
  3. pure Nash equilibria

Qualifiers

  • Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)11
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1
Reflects downloads up to 05 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Equilibrium computation in multidimensional congestion gamesProceedings of the Fortieth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence10.5555/3702676.3702758(1751-1779)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Computing Nash Equilibria in Multidimensional Congestion GamesProceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems10.5555/3635637.3663143(2309-2311)Online publication date: 6-May-2024
  • (2024)Nash Equilibria in Two-Resource Congestion Games with Player-Specific Payoff FunctionsGames10.3390/g1502000715:2(7)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2024
  • (2023)Conflicting Bundle Allocation with Preferences in Weighted Directed Acyclic Graphs: Application to Orbit Slot Allocation ProblemsSystems10.3390/systems1106029711:6(297)Online publication date: 9-Jun-2023
  • (2023)Existence and Complexity of Approximate Equilibria in Weighted Congestion GamesMathematics of Operations Research10.1287/moor.2022.127248:1(583-602)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2023
  • (2023)A Unifying Approximate Potential for Weighted Congestion GamesTheory of Computing Systems10.1007/s00224-023-10133-z67:4(855-876)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
  • (2022)Pure Nash Equilibria in Resource Graph GamesJournal of Artificial Intelligence Research10.1613/jair.1.1266872(185-213)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2022
  • (2022)Bundle Allocation with Conflicting Preferences Represented as Weighted Directed Acyclic GraphsAdvances in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Complex Systems Simulation. The PAAMS Collection10.1007/978-3-031-18192-4_23(280-293)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2022
  • (2021)On approximate pure Nash equilibria in weighted congestion games with polynomial latenciesJournal of Computer and System Sciences10.1016/j.jcss.2020.10.007117(40-48)Online publication date: May-2021
  • (2020)A Unifying Approximate Potential for Weighted Congestion GamesAlgorithmic Game Theory10.1007/978-3-030-57980-7_7(99-113)Online publication date: 16-Sep-2020
  • Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Full Access

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media