Game-theoretic Auction Design for Bandwidth Sharing in Helper-assisted P2P Streaming

Video traffic offloading through the helper peers can significantly alleviate the server workload and enhanceusers’ Quality of Experience (QoE). In this paper, the complex interactions of a number of helpers seeking totrade their bandwidth surplus in a peer-to-peer (P2P) market are studied using non-cooperative game theoryand double auction. In particular, a non-cooperative game is formulated among the helpers in which eachhelper can make a decision on the maximum amount of upload bandwidth surplus that it is willing to sell soas to maximize its utility function that reflects the tradeoff between the benefits from bandwidth sharing andits associated costs. Then, the price governing the bandwidth trading market between the helpers and peersis determined via a truthful double auction mechanism. To solve the game, an algorithm based on the bestresponse dynamics is proposed using which helpers can reach a Nash Equilibrium point. Simulation resultsexhibit that the proposed algorithm achieves significant performance improvements in terms of utility perselling helpers. Copyright c 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords:

P2P Streaming , Double Auction , Non-cooperative Game , Bandwidth Marketplace , Nash Equilibria , Dynamic Pricing