Selfish Routing and Link Scheduling in mmWave Backhaul Networks

In this paper we present and evaluate the performance of a routing and link scheduling algorithm for millimeter wave backhaul networks. The proposed algorithm models the end user behavior as being selfish, i.e., it considers users always aiming to maximize their individual utility, rather than the global optimization objective. In order to forward packets through the backhaul network, the Shapley value method is applied, which is shown to induce solutions with reduced latency. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated in terms of the total delay as well as the price of anarchy, which represents the inefficiency of a scheduling policy when users are allowed to adapt their rates in a selfish manner and reach an equilibrium. A relaxed version of the problem is also presented, which provides a lower bound on the value of the optimal solution. According to simulation results, the system employing the proposed algorithm outperforms in terms of delay and price of anarchy a system considering a First-In-First-Out packet forwarding policy, as well as a system employing local search global optimization, under which users aim at optimizing the overall delay in the network.