Nash equilibria in all-optical networks

We consider the problem of routing a number of communication requests in WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) all-optical networks from the standpoint of game theory. If we view each routing request (pair of source-target nodes) as a player, then a strategy consists of a path from the source to the target and a frequency (color). To reflect the restriction that two requests must not use the same frequency on the same edge, conflicting strategies are assigned a prohibitively high cost. Under this formulation, we consider several natural cost functions, each one reflecting a different aspect of restriction in the available bandwidth. For each cost function we examine the problem of the existence of pure Nash equilibria, the complexity of recognizing and computing them and finally, the problem in which we are given a Nash equilibrium and we are asked to find a better one in the sense that the total bandwidth used is less. As it turns out some of these problems are tractable and others are NP-hard. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.