Title
Workload Factoring: A Game-Theoretic Perspective
Abstract
Contention among users utilizing a single shared resource arises in multiple contexts of computing and computer communications. We consider a setup in which users can split their work between a shared resource and a private resource. Unlike the private resource, which provides guaranteed performance, the performance of the shared resource is highly dependent on the usage pattern of other users, which in turn influences a user's decision if and to what extent to make use of the shared resource. The intrinsic relation between the utility that a user perceives from the shared resource and the usage pattern followed by other users gives rise to a noncooperative game, which we model and investigate. We show that the considered game admits a Nash equilibrium. Moreover, we show that this equilibrium is unique. We investigate the ratio between the worst Nash equilibrium and the social optimum, known as the “price of anarchy,” and show that, while in some cases of interest the Nash equilibrium coincides with a social optimum, in other cases the price of anarchy can be arbitrarily large. We demonstrate that, somewhat counterintuitively, exercising admission control to the shared resource may deteriorate its performance. Furthermore, we demonstrate that certain (heavy) users may “scare off” other, potentially large, communities of users. Accordingly, we propose a resource allocation scheme that addresses this problem and opens the shared resource to a wide range of user types.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1109/TNET.2014.2354572
IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (TON)
Keywords
Field
DocType
Nash equilibrium,Games,Delays,Context,Computers,Computational modeling,Cloud computing
Admission control,Price of stability,Computer science,Resource allocation,Price of anarchy,Shared resource,Nash equilibrium,Factoring,Cloud computing,Distributed computing
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
PP
99
1063-6692
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.40
11
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Amir Nahir1171.11
Ariel Orda22595351.94
Danny Raz3342.71