1st International ICST Workshop on Game theory for Communication networks

Research Article

Information Theoretic Aspects of Fairness Criteria in Network Resource Allocation Problems

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/gamecomm.2007.2039,
        author={Masato Uchida},
        title={Information Theoretic Aspects of Fairness Criteria in Network Resource Allocation Problems},
        proceedings={1st International ICST Workshop on Game theory for Communication networks},
        proceedings_a={GAMECOMM},
        year={2010},
        month={5},
        keywords={Resource Allocation Fairness Information Theory},
        doi={10.4108/gamecomm.2007.2039}
    }
    
  • Masato Uchida
    Year: 2010
    Information Theoretic Aspects of Fairness Criteria in Network Resource Allocation Problems
    GAMECOMM
    ICST
    DOI: 10.4108/gamecomm.2007.2039
Masato Uchida1,*
  • 1: Network Design Research Center, Kyushu Institute of Technology 3-8-1 Asano, Kokura-Kita-ku, Kitakyusyu, Fukuoka 802-0001, JAPAN
*Contact email: m.uchida@ndrc.kyutech.ac.jp

Abstract

The present paper provides a novel characterization of fairness criteria in network resource allocation problems based on information theory. Specifically, the optimization problems that motivate fairness criteria for multi-dimensional resource are characterized using information divergence measures that were originally used in information theory. The characteristics of the fairness criteria clarified herein are summarized as follows: (i) The proportional fairness criterion can be derived through the minimization of the Kullback-Leibler divergence. (ii) The (p, α)-proportional fairness criterion, which is a generalization of the proportional fairness criterion, can be derived through the minimization of the α-divergence and the power-divergence. In addition, the optimization of the fairness criterion is closely related to the Tsallis entropy maximization principle. (iii) The above relationships can be generalized using Csiszár's f-divergence and Bregman's divergence. The information theoretic approach is then applied to a typical example in a practical network resource allocation problem. This example provides a glimpse into the inherent connection between resource allocation problems and information theory.