An Overview of Game Theory and its Applications in Communication Networks

[ISSN: 2045-7057] www.ijmse.org 5 Abstract—Due to its capability to solve the situations of conflict and competition, Game Theory has been used as a mathematical tool in economics, politics, biology and human psychology. Nash Equilibrium, being the solution of a non-cooperative game, gives a stable state in a sense that no agent/player have any positive incentive to deviate from its current adopted strategy, when all others players of the game stick to their current moves. The Pareto Efficiency is the solution of a game where the utility gained by a player by deviating from the current strategy causes at least one other player worst off. In Communication Networks, the cooperation to follow a certain protocol cannot be taken as for granted, keeping in view the selfish nature of now a day’s network entities. To cope with the selfish and competitive behavior of the network entities, Game Theory provides a feasible solution for resource utilization and service provisioning. This paper presents the detailed overview of the Game Theory concepts and its applications in the Communication Networks, both from cooperative and non-cooperative perspectives.