Game-Theoretic Queue-Stabilizing Backoff Algorithm in S-ALOHA and CSMA Systems

This letter investigates a queue-stabilizing backoff algorithm for slotted ALOHA and carrier-sense multiple access systems from game-theoretic perspective. Since queue stability of each user could be achieved when user's throughput is greater than its mean packet arrival rate, every user tries to achieve its throughput up to a certain target level, by playing a non-cooperative game of determining a (re)transmission probability. We characterize Nash equilibrium points (NEPs) of this game and the convergence of a distributed backoff algorithm for users to employ to reach the NEPs.