access probabilities to maximize their utilities. Power control games in CDMA systems Power control refers to the process through which mobiles in CDMA cellular settings adjust their transmission powers so that they do not create unnecessary interference to other mobiles, trying, nevertheless, to achieve the required quality of service. Power control can be centralized in nature, where the base station dictates and assigns transmitter power levels to mobiles based on their link qualities, or they can be distributed, in which mobiles update their powers autonomously, independent of the base station, based on perceived service quality. In such distributed settings, the mobiles can be considered to be selfish agents (players) who try to maximize their utilities (often modeled as corresponding throughputs). Game theory is considered to be a powerful tool to study such scenarios. Applications of cooperative game theory (coalitions) in wireless networks research Coalitional game theory in wireless networks Coalitional game theory is a branch of game theory that deals with cooperative behavior. In a coalitional game, the key idea is to study the formation of cooperative groups, i.e., coalitions among a number of players. By cooperating, the players can strengthen their position in a given game as well as improve their utilities. In this context, coalitional game theory proves to be a powerful tool for modeling cooperative behavior in many wireless networking applications such as cognitive radio networks, wireless system, physical layer security, virtual MIMO, among others. See also Mesh networking References Network theory Network performance