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A game theoretical approach for distributed resource allocation with uncertainty

Lei Xue (Key Laboratory of Measurement and Control of Complex Systems of Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Automation, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China)
Changyin Sun (Key Laboratory of Measurement and Control of Complex Systems of Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Automation, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China)
Fang Yu (Key Laboratory of Measurement and Control of Complex Systems of Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Automation, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China)

International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics

ISSN: 1756-378X

Article publication date: 13 March 2017

364

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to build the connections between game theory and the resource allocation problem with general uncertainty. It proposes modeling the distributed resource allocation problem by Bayesian game. During this paper, three basic kinds of uncertainties are discussed. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to build the connections between game theory and the resource allocation problem with general uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the Bayesian game is proposed for modeling the resource allocation problem with uncertainty. The basic game theoretical model contains three parts: agents, utility function, and decision-making process. Therefore, the probabilistic weighted Shapley value (WSV) is applied to design the utility function of the agents. For achieving the Bayesian Nash equilibrium point, the rational learning method is introduced for optimizing the decision-making process of the agents.

Findings

The paper provides empirical insights about how the game theoretical model deals with the resource allocation problem uncertainty. A probabilistic WSV function was proposed to design the utility function of agents. Moreover, the rational learning was used to optimize the decision-making process of agents for achieving Bayesian Nash equilibrium point. By comparing with the models with full information, the simulation results illustrated the effectiveness of the Bayesian game theoretical methods for the resource allocation problem under uncertainty.

Originality/value

This paper designs a Bayesian theoretical model for the resource allocation problem under uncertainty. The relationships between the Bayesian game and the resource allocation problem are discussed.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (Grant No. BK20150851) and the Research Innovation Program for College Graduates of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. CXLX13_09). The project is funded by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2015M581842). This work is also sponsored by NUPTSF (Grant No. NY215011). This project is also funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

Citation

Xue, L., Sun, C. and Yu, F. (2017), "A game theoretical approach for distributed resource allocation with uncertainty", International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 52-67. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJICC-03-2016-0013

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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