text:
The Price of Stability for Network Design with Fair Cost Allocation Elliot Anshelevich∗ Anirban Dasgupta† Jon Kleinberg ‡ ´ Eva Tardos§ Tom Wexler¶ Tim Roughgarden Abstract scheme can be derived from the Shapley value, and has a number of basic economic motivations. We Network design is a fundamental problem for show that the price of stability for network design which it is important to understand the effects with respect to this fair cost allocation is O(log k), of strategic behavior. Given a collection of self- where k is the number of users, and that a good interested agents who want to form a network con- Nash equilibrium can be achieved via best-response necting certain endpoints, the set of stable solutions dynamics in which users iteratively defect from a — the Nash equilibria — may look quite different starting solution. This establishes that the fair cost from the centrally enforced optimum. We study the allocation protocol is in fact a useful mechanism quality of the best Nash equilibrium, and refer to for inducing strategic behavior to form near-optimal the ratio of its cost to the optimum network cost equilibria. We discuss connections to the class of as the price of stability. The best Nash equilibrium potential games defined by Monderer and Shapley, solution has a natural meaning of stability in this and extend our results to cases in which users are context — it is the optimal solution that can be pro- seeking to balance network design costs with laten- posed from which no user will "defect". cies in the constructed network, with stronger results We consider the price of stability for network de- when the network has only delays and no construc- sign with respect to one of the most widely-studied tion costs. We also present bounds on the conver- protocols for network cost allocation, in which the gence time of best-response dynamics, and discuss cost of each edge is divided equally between users extensions to a weighted game. whose connections make use of it; this fair-division ∗ Cornell University, Department of Computer Science, 1. Introduction Upson Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. Supported by ITR grant 0311333. Email: email@example.com. † Cornell University, Department of Computer Science, In many network settings, the system behavior Upson Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. Supported by the Depart- arises from the actions of a large number of inde- ment of Computer Science. Email: email@example.com. pendent agents, each motivated by self-interest and ‡ Cornell University, Department of Computer Sci- optimizing an individual objective function. As a ence, Upson Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. Email: klein- firstname.lastname@example.com. Supported in part by a David and Lucile result, the global performance of the system may Packard Foundation Fellowship and NSF grants 0081334 and not be as good as in a case where a central author- 0311333. ity can simply dictate a solution; rather, we need § Cornell University, Department of Computer Science, to understand the quality of solutions that are con- Upson Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. Supported in part by NSF grant CCR-032553, ITR grant 0311333, and ONR grant sistent with self-interested behavior. Recent theo- N00014-98-1-0589. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. retical work has framed this type of question in the ¶ Cornell University, Department of Computer Science, following general form: how much worse is the so- Upson Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. Supported by ITR grant lution quality at a Nash equilibrium1 , relative to 0311333. Email: email@example.com. UC Berkeley, Computer Science Division, Soda Hall, 1 Recall that a Nash equilibrium is a state of the system Berkeley, CA 94720. Supported by an NSF Postdoctoral Fel- in which no agent has an interest in unilaterally changing its lowship. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. own behavior. the quality at a centrally enforced optimum? Ques- (Note that this cost can depend on the choices of tions of this genre have received considerable atten- the other users as well.) Although there are in tion in recent years, for problems including routing principle many possible cost-sharing mechanisms, [24, 25, 4], load balancing [5, 6, 16, 23], and facility research in this area has converged on a few mech- location [26]. anisms with good theoretical and empirical behav- An important issue to explore in this area is the ior; here we focus on the following particularly nat- middle ground between centrally enforced solutions ural one: the cost of each edge is shared equally and completely unregulated anarchy. In most net- by the set of all users whose paths contain it, so ce working applications, it is not the case that agents that Ci (S1 , S2 , . . . , Sk ) = . This are completely unrestricted; rather, they interact |{j : e ∈ Sj }| e∈Si with an underlying protocol that essentially pro- equal-division mechanism has a number of basic eco- poses a collective solution to all participants, who nomic motivations; it can be derived from the Shap- can each either accept it or defect from it. As a re- ley value [20], and it can be shown to be the unique sult, it is in the interest of the protocol designer to cost-sharing scheme satisfying a number of differ- seek the best Nash equilibrium; this can naturally ent sets of axioms [9, 11, 20]. For the former rea- be viewed as the optimum subject to the constraint son, we will refer to it as the Shapley cost-sharing that the solution be stable, with no agent having mechanism. Note that the total edge cost of the de- an incentive to unilaterally defect from it once it signed network is equal to the sum of the costs in the is offered. Hence, one can view the ratio of the union of all Si , and the costs allocated to users in solution quality at the best Nash equilibrium rela- the Shapley mechanism completely pay for this total n tive to the global optimum as a price of stability, edge cost: i=1 Ci (S1 , S2 , . . . , Sk ) = e∈∪i Si ce . since it captures the problem of optimization sub- Now, the general question is to determine how ject to this constraint. Some recent work [1, 4] has this basic cost-sharing mechanism serves to influ- considered this definition (termed the "optimistic ence the strategic behavior of the users, and what price of anarchy" in [1]); it stands in contrast to the effect this has on the structure and overall cost larger line of work in algorithmic game theory on of the network one obtains. Given a solution to the price of anarchy [21] — the ratio of the worst the network design problem consisting of a vec- Nash equilibrium to the optimum — which is more tor of paths (S1 , . . . , Sk ) for the n users, user i suited to worst-case analysis of situations with es- would be interested in deviating from this solu- sentially no protocol mediating interactions among tion if there were an alternate si -ti path Si so that the agents. Indeed, one can view the activity of a changing to Si would lower its cost under the result- protocol designer seeking a good Nash equilibrium ing allocation: Ci (S1 , . . . , Si−1 , Si , Si+1 , . . . , Sk ) < as being aligned with the general goals of mecha- Ci (S1 , . . . , Si−1 , Si , Si+1 , . . . , Sk ). We say that a set nism design — producing a game that yields good of paths is a Nash equilibrium if no user has an inter- outcomes when players act in their own self-interest. est in deviating. As we will see below, there exists a set of paths in Nash equilibrium for every instance Network Design Games. Network design is a of this network design game. (In this paper, we natural area in which to explore the price of stabil- will only be concerned with pure Nash equilibrium; ity, given the large body of work in the networking i.e. with equilibria where each user deterministically literature on methods for sharing the cost of a de- chooses a single path.) signed network — often a virtual overlay, multicast The goal of a network design protocol is to sug- tree, or other sub-network of the Internet — among gest for each user i a path Si so that the resulting a collection of participants. (See e.g. [9, 11] for set of paths is in Nash equilibrium and its total cost overviews of work in this area). exceeds that of an optimal set of paths by as small a A cost-sharing mechanism can be viewed as the factor as possible; this factor is the price of stability underlying protocol that determines how much a of the instance. It is useful at this point to consider network serving several participants will cost to a simple example that illustrates how the price of each of them. Specifically, say that each user i has stability can grow to a super-constant value (with a pair of nodes (si , ti ) that it wishes to connect; it k). Suppose k players wish to connect the common chooses an si -ti path Si ; and the cost-sharing mech- source s to their terminal ti , assume player i has anism then charges user i a cost of Ci (S1 , . . . , Sk ). its own path of cost 1/i, and all players can share a t 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 k-1 k s1 s2 s3 ... sk-1 sk 1+ε 0 0 0 0 0 v Figure 1. An instance in which the price of stability converges to H(k) = Θ(log k) as ε → 0. common path of cost 1 + ε for some small ε > 0 (see the price of stability. Specifically, we give bounds Figure 1). The optimal solution would connect all relating the value of the potential for a given solu- agents through the common path for a total cost of tion to the overall cost of that solution; if we then 1 + ε. However, if this solution were offered to the iterate best-response dynamics starting from an op- users, they would defect from it one by one to their timal solution, the potential does not increase, and alternate paths. The unique Nash equilibrium has hence we can bound the cost of any solution that k a cost of i=1 1 = H(k). i we reach. Thus, for this network design game, best- While the price of stability in this instance grows response dynamics starting from the optimum does with k, it only does so logarithmically. It is thus in fact always lead to a good Nash equilibrium. natural to ask how bad the price of stability can We can extend our basic result to a number of be for this network design problem. If we think more general settings. To begin with, the H(k) about the example in Figure 1 further, it is also bound on the price of stability extends directly to interesting to note that a good Nash equilibrium the case in which users are selecting arbitrary sub- is reached by iterated greedy updating of players' sets of a ground set (with elements' costs shared solutions (in other words, best-response dynamics) according to the Shapley value), rather than paths starting from an optimal solution; it is natural to in a graph; it also extends to the case in which the ask to what extent this holds in general. cost of each edge is a non-decreasing concave func- tion of the number of users on it. In addition, our Our Results. Our first main result is that in ev- results also hold if we introduce capacities into our ery instance of the network design problem with model; each edge e may be used by at most ue play- Shapley cost-sharing, there always exists a Nash ers, where ue is the capacity of e. equilibrium of total cost at most H(k) times opti- We arrive at a more technically involved set of ex- mal. In other words, the simple example in Figure 1 tensions if we wish to add latencies to the network is in fact the worst possible case. design problem. Here each edge has a concave con- We prove this result using a potential function struction cost ce (x) when there are x users on the method due to Monderer and Shapley [19] and edge, and a latency cost de (x); the cost experienced Rosenthal [22] (see also [3]): one defines a poten- by a user is the full latency plus a fair share of the tial function Φ on possible solutions and shows that construction cost, de (x) + ce (x)/x. We give general any improving move by one of the users (i.e. to conditions on the latency functions that allow us to lower its own cost) reduces the value of Φ. Since bound the price of stability in this case at d · H(k), the set of possible solutions is finite, it follows that where d depends on the delay functions used. More- any sequence of improving moves leads to a Nash over, we obtain stronger bounds in the case where equilibrium. The goal of Monderer and Shapley's users experience only delays, not construction costs; and Rosenthal's work was to prove existence state- this includes a result that relates the cost at the ments of this sort; for our purposes, we make further best Nash equilibrium to that of an optimum with use of the potential function to prove a bound on twice as many players, and a result that improves the potential-based bound on the price of stability equilibrium existed; and in many cases in [1] when for the single-source delay-only case. pure Nash equilibria did exist, certain users were Since a number of our proofs are obtained by able to act as "free riders," paying very little or following the results of best-response dynamics via nothing at all. The present model, on the other a potential function, it is natural to investigate the hand, ensures that there is always a pure Nash equi- speed of convergence of best-response dynamics for librium within a logarithmic factor of optimal, in this game. We show that it converges to a Nash which users pay a fair portion of the resources they equilibrium in polynomial time for the case of two use. Network creation games of a fairly different players, but that with k players, it can run for a time flavor — in which users correspond to nodes, and exponential in k. Whether there is a way to schedule can build subsets of the edges incident to them — players' moves to make best-response converge in a have been considered in [2, 7, 10]. The model in polynomial number of steps for this game in general this paper associates users instead with connection is an interesting open question. requests, and allows them to contribute to the cost Finally, we consider a natural generalization of of any edge that helps form a path that they need. the cost-sharing model that carries us beyond the The bulk of the work on cost-sharing (see e.g. potential-function framework and raises interesting [9, 11] and the references there) tends to assume questions for further work. Specifically, suppose a fixed underlying set of edges. Jain and Vazirani each user has a weight (perhaps corresponding to [12] and Kent and Skorin-Kapov [15] consider cost- the amount of traffic it plans to send), and we sharing for a single source network design game. change the cost-allocation so that user i's payment Cost-sharing games assume that there is a central for edge e is equal to the ratio of its weight to the authority that designs and maintains the network, total weight of all users on e. In addition to being and decides appropriate cost-shares for each agent, intuitively natural, this definition is analogous to depending on the graph and all other agents, via a certain natural generalizations of the Shapley value complex algorithm. The agents' only role is to re- [18]. The weighted model, however, is significantly port their utility for being included in the network. more complicated: there is no longer a potential Here, on the other hand, we consider a sim- function whose value tracks improvements in users' ple cost-sharing mechanism, the Shapley-value, and costs when they greedily update their solutions, and ask what the strategic implications of a given cost- it is an open question whether best-response dynam- sharing mechanism are for the way in which a net- ics will always converge to a Nash equilibrium. We work will be designed. This question explores the have obtained some initial results here, including feedback between the protocol that governs network the convergence of best-response dynamics when all construction and the behavior of self-interested users seek to construct a path from a node s to a agents that interact with this protocol. An ap- node t (the price of stability here is 1), and in the proach of a similar style, though in a different set- general model of users selecting sets from a ground ting related to routing, was pursued by Johari and set, when each element appears in the sets of at most Tsitsiklis [13]; there, they assumed a network pro- two users. An interesting open question is to obtain tocol that priced traffic according to a scheme due more general results in this weighted setting, which to Kelly [14], and asked how this protocol would af- appears to pose a challenge to potential-based meth- fect the strategic decisions of self-interested agents ods. Further, we know that some results will neces- routing connections in the network. sarily look quite different in the weighted case; for example, using a construction involving user weights The special case of our game with only delays that grow exponentially in k, we can show that the is closely related of the congestion game of [25, 24]. price of stability can be as high as Ω(k). They consider a game where the amount of flow car- ried by an individual user is infinitesimally small (a non-atomic game), while in this paper we assume Related Work. Network design games under a that each user has a unit of flow, which it needs to different model were considered by a subset of the route on a single path. In the non-atomic game of authors in [1]; there, the setting was much more [25, 24] the Nash equilibrium is essentially unique "unregulated" in that users could offer to pay for an (hence there is no distinction between the price of arbitrary fraction of any edge in the network. This anarchy and stability), while in our atomic game model resulted in instances where no pure Nash there can be many equilibria. Fabrikant, Papadim- itriou, and Talwar [8] consider our atomic game with only on edge e and the number of users x whose delays only. They give a polynomial time algorithm strategy contains e. Monderer and Shapley [19] to minimize the potential function Φ in the case show that all congestion games have deterministic that all users share a common source, and show that Nash equilibria. They prove this using a potential finding any equilibrium solution is PLS-complete for function Φ, defined as follows. multiple source-sink pairs. Our results extend the xe price of anarchy results of [25, 24] about non-atomic Φ(S) = fe (x) (1) games to results on the price of stability for the case e∈E x=1 of single source atomic games. A weighted game similar to our is presented by Monderer and Shapley [19] show that for any strat- Libman and Orda [17], with a different mechanism egy S = (S1 , . . . , Sk ) if a single player i devi- for distributing costs among users. They do not ates to strategy Si , then the change in the po- consider the price of stability, and instead focus on tential value Φ(S) − Φ(S ) of the new strategy set convergence in parallel networks. S = (S1 , . . . , Si , . . . , Sk ) is exactly the change in the cost to player i. Note that the change of player 2. Nash Equilibria of Network Design i's strategy affects the cost of many other players j = i, but the Φ value is not effected by the change with Shapley Cost-Sharing in the cost of these players, it simply tracks the cost of the player who changes its strategy. They call a In this section we consider the Fair Connection game in which such a function Φ exists a potential Game for k players as defined in the Introduction. game. To show that such a potential game has a de- Let a directed graph G = (V, E) be given, with each terministic Nash equilibrium, start from any state edge having a nonnegative cost ce . Each player i has S = (S1 , . . . , Sk ) and consider a sequence of self- a set of terminal nodes Ti that he wants to connect. ish moves (allowing players to change strategies to A strategy of a player is a set of edges Si ⊂ E such improve their costs). In a congestion game any se- that Si connects all nodes in Ti . We assume that quence of such improving moves leads to a Nash we use the Shapley value to share the cost of the equilibrium as each move decreases the potential edges, i.e. all players using an edge split up the function Φ, and hence must lead to a stable state. cost of the edge equally. Given a vector of players' Monderer and Shapley do not say anything about strategies S = (S1 , . . . , Sk ), let xe be the number the quality of Nash equilibria with respect to the of agents whose strategy contains edge e. Then the centralized optimum, but we can use their poten- cost to agent i is Ci (S) = e∈Si (ce /xe ), and the tial function to establish our bound. Let xe be de- goal of each agent is to connect its terminals with fined as above with respect to S. Now the poten- minimum total cost. tial function of Equation 1 in our case is Φ(S) = In the worst case, Nash equilibria can be very e∈E ce H(xe ). According to the above argument, expensive in this game, so that the price of anar- any improving deviation decreases Φ(S), and so a chy becomes as large as k. To see this, consider k sequence of improving deviations by players must players with common source s and sink t, and two eventually result in a Nash equilibrium. parallel edges of cost 1 and k. The worst equilib- ∗ ∗ Consider the strategy S ∗ = (S1 , . . . , Sk ) defin- rium has all players selecting the more expensive ing the optimal centralized solution. Let OP T = edge, thereby paying k times the cost of the op- e∈S ∗ ce be the cost of this solution. Then, timal network. However, we can bound the price Φ(S ∗ ) ≤ e∈S ∗ (ce · H(k)), which is exactly H(k) · of stability by H(k), which is the harmonic sum OP T . Now we start from strategy S ∗ and follow 1 1 + 1 + 1 + . . . + k , as follows. 2 3 a sequence of improving self-interested moves. We know that this will result in a Nash equilibrium S Theorem 2.1 The price of stability of the fair con- with Φ(S) ≤ Φ(S ∗ ). nection game is at most H(k). Note that the potential value of any solution S is at least the total cost: Φ(S) ≥ e∈S ce = cost(S). Proof: The fair connection game that we have de- Therefore, there exists a Nash equilibrium with cost fined falls into the class of congestion games as de- at most H(k) · OP T , as desired. fined by Monderer and Shapley [19], as the cost of an edge e to a user i is fe (x) = ce /x, which depends Recall from the Introduction that this bound is tight as shown by the example in Figure 1. Unfor- ce (x)/x, and a function of the selected set, such as tunately, even though Theorem 2.1 says that cheap the distance between terminals in the network de- Nash equilibria exist, finding them is NP-complete sign case. More precisely, the price of stability is (by a reduction from 3D-Matching). still at most H(k) if each player is trying to mini- We can extend the results of Theorem 2.1 to con- mize the cost e∈Si (ce (xe )/xe ) + di (Si ) where ce is cave cost functions. Consider the extended fair con- monotone increasing and concave, and di is an ar- nection game where instead of a constant cost ce , bitrary function specific to player i (e.g. a distance each edge has a cost which depends on the number function, or diameter of Si , etc.). The proof is anal- of players using that edge, ce (x). We assume that ogous to Theorem 2.2, except with a new poten- (x) ce (x) is a nondecreasing, concave function, mod- tial Φ(S) = i di (Si ) + e∈S x=xe cex . Notice x=1 eling the buy-at-bulk economy of scale of buying that this is technically not a congestion game on the edges that can be used by more players. Notice that given graph G. Finally we note that all these results the cost of an edge ce (x) might increase with the (as well as those subsequent) hold in the presence number of players using it, but the cost per player of capacities. Adding capacities ue to each edge e fe (x) = ce (x)/x decreases if ce (x) is concave. and disallowing more than ue players to use e at any time does not substantially alter any of our proofs. Theorem 2.2 Take a fair connection game with each edge having a nondecreasing concave cost func- The Case of Undirected Graphs. While the tion ce (x), where x is the number of players using bound of H(k) is tight for general directed graphs, edge e. Then the price of stability is at most H(k). it is not tight for undirected graphs. Finding the Proof: The proof is analogous to the proof of The- correct bound is an interesting open problem. In orem 2.1. We use the potential function Φ(S) de- the case of two players, our bound on the price of fined by (1). As before, the change in potential if stability is H(2) = 3/2. In the full version we show a player i deviates equals exactly to the change of that that this bound can be improved to 4/3 in the that player's payments. We start with the strat- case of two players and a single source. We also give egy S ∗ with minimum total cost, and perform a se- an example to show that this bound is tight. ries of improving deviations until we reach a Nash equilibrium S with Φ(S) ≤ Φ(S ∗ ). To finish the 3. Dealing with Delays proof all we need to show is that cost(S) ≤ Φ(S) ≤ H(k) · cost(S) for all strategies S. The second in- In most of the previous section, we assumed that equality follows since ce (x) is nondecreasing and the utility of a player depends only on the cost of xe therefore x=1 (ce (x)/x) ≤ H(xe ) · ce (xe ). To see the edges he uses. What changes if we introduce that cost(S) ≤ Φ(S) notice that since ce (x) is con- latency into the picture? We have extended this to cave, the cost per player must decrease with x, the case when the players' cost is a combination of i.e. ce (x)/x is a nonincreasing function. Therefore, "design" cost and the length of the path selected. cost(S) = e∈S ce (xe ) = e∈S xe · (ce (xe )/xe ) ≤ More generally, delay on an edge does not have to Φ(S), which finishes the proof. be simply the "hop-count", but can also depend on congestion, i.e., on the number of players using the Extensions. The proof of Theorem 2.2 extends to edge. In this section we will consider such a model. a general congestion game, where players attempt Assume that each edge has both a cost function to share a set of resources R they need. Instead of ce (x) and a latency function de (x), where ce (x) is having an underlying graph structure, we now think the cost of building the edge e for x users and the of each s ∈ R as a resource with a concave cost users will share this cost equally, while de (x) is the function cs (x) of the number of users selecting sets delay suffered by users on edge e if x users are shar- containing s. The possible strategies of each player ing the edge. The goal of each user will be to min- i is a set Si of subsets of R. Each player seeks to imize the sum of his cost and his latency. If we as- select a set Si ∈ Si so as to minimize his cost. Since sume that both the cost and latency for each edge the proofs above did not rely on the graph structure, depend only on the number of players using that they translate directly to this extension. edge, then this fits directly into our model of a con- We can further extend the results to the case gestion game above: the total cost felt by each user when the cost to a player is a combination of the cost on the edge is fe (x) = ce (x)/x + de (x). If the func- tion xfe (x) is concave then Theorem 2.2 applies. a concave cost and delay that is independent of the But while concave functions are natural for model- number of users on the edge, then we get that the ing cost, latency tends to be convex. price of stability is at most H(k) as we have shown at the end of the previous section. If the delay grows 3.1. Combining Costs and Delays linearly with the number of users, then the price of stability is at most 2H(k). First, we extend the argument in the proof of Theorem 2.2 to general functions fe . The most gen- 3.2. Games with Only Delays eral version of this argument is expressed in the fol- lowing theorem. In this subsection we consider games with only delay. We assume that the cost of a player for using Theorem 3.1 Consider a fair connection game an edge e used by x players is fe (x) = de (x), and with arbitrary edge-cost functions fe . Suppose that de is a monotone increasing function of x. This Φ(S) is as in Equation 1, with cost(S) ≤ A · Φ(S), cost function models delays that are increasing with and Φ(S) ≤ B · cost(S) for all S. Then, the price congestion. of stability is at most A · B. We will consider the special case when there is a common source s. Each player i has one additional ∗ Proof: Let S ∗ be a strategy such that Si is the set terminal ti , and the player wants to connect s to ti of edges i uses in the centralized optimal solution. via a directed path. Fabrikant, Papadimitriou, and We know from above that if we perform a series of Talwar [8] showed that in this case, one can com- improving deviations on it, we must converge to a pute the Nash equilibrium minimizing the potential Nash equilibrium S with potential value at most function Φ via a minimum cost flow computation. Φ(S ∗ ). By our assumptions, cost(S ) ≤ A · Φ(S ) ≤ For each edge e they introduce many parallel copies, A · Φ(S ∗ ) ≤ AB · cost(S ∗ ) = AB · OP T . each with capacity 1, and cost de (x) for integers x > 0. We will use properties of a minimum cost Our main interest in this section are functions flow for establishing our results. fe (x) that are the sums of the fair share of a cost First we show a bicriteria bound, and compare and a delay, i.e., fe (x) = ce (x)/x+de (x). We will as- the cost of the cheapest Nash equilibrium to that of sume that de (x) is monotone increasing, while ce (x) the optimum design with twice as many players. is monotone increasing and concave. Theorem 3.3 Consider the single source case of a Corollary 3.2 If ce (x) is concave and nondecreas- congestion game with only delays. Let S be the min- ing, de (x) is nondecreasing for all e, and xe de (xe ) ≤ xe imum cost Nash equilibrium and S ∗ be the minimum A x=1 de (x) for all e and xe , then the price of sta- cost solution for the problem where each player i is bility is at most A · H(k). In particular, if de (x) replaced by two players. Then cost(S) ≤ cost(S ∗ ). is a polynomial with degree at most l and nonnega- tive coefficients, then the price of stability is at most Proof: Consider the Nash equilibrium obtained (l + 1) · H(k). by Fabrikant et al [8] via a minimum cost flow com- Proof: For functions fe (x) = ce (x)/x + de (x), putation. Assume that xe is the number of users both the cost and potential of a solution come in using edge e at this equilibrium. By assumption, all two parts corresponding to the cost c and delay d. users share a common source s. Let D(v) denote For the part corresponding to cost the potential the cost of the minimum cost path in the residual over-estimates the cost by at most a factor of H(k) graph from s to v. The length of the path of user as proved in Theorem 2.2. If on the delay, the po- i is at most D(ti ) (as otherwise the residual graph tential underestimates the cost by at most a factor would have a negative cycle) and hence we get that of A, then we get the bound of A·H(k) for the price cost(S) ≤ i D(ti ). Now consider a modified delay function de for ˆ of stability by Theorem 3.1. each edge e = (u, v). Define d ˆe (x) = de (x) if x > xe , Therefore, for reasonable delay functions, the ˆ and de (x) = D(v) − D(u) if x ≤ xe . Note that for price of stability cannot be too large. In particu- any edge e we have D(v) − D(u) ≤ de (xe + 1) as the lar, if the utility function of each player depends on edge e = (u, v) is in the residual graph with cost ˆ de (xe + 1). This implies that the modified delay d is Theorem 3.4 If in a single source fair connection monotone. For edges with xe = 0 we also have that game all costs are delays, and all delays are from a de (xe ) ≤ D(v)−D(u) as the reverse edge (v, u) is in set D satisfying the above condition, then the price the residual graph with cost −de (xe ), so the delay of stability is at most α(D). of an edge is not decreased. Now observe that, subject to the new delay d, ˆ Proof Sketch: We defer the full proof to the ex- the shortest path from s to ti is length D(ti ) even tended version. The idea is as follows. We construct ˆ a modified network G by adding edges and capaci- in an empty network. The minimum possible cost of two paths from s to ti for the two users corre- ties to G. We show that the Nash equilibrium is not sponding to user i is then at least 2D(ti ) for each affected by the change, and the optimum can only player i. Therefore the minimum cost of a solution improve. We obtain the claimed bound by compar- ˆ with delays d is at least 2 i D(ti ). ing the cost of the Nash equilibrium to the minimum ˆ cost of a fractional solution (a flow) in G. To bound cost(S ∗ ) we need to bound the differ- ence in cost of a solution when measured with delays Consider the Nash equilibrium obtained via a ˆ d and d. Note that for any edge e = (u, v) and any minimum cost flow computation as in the proof of ˆ Theorem 3.3, let xe be the number of paths using number x we have that xde (x)−xde (x) ≤ xe (D(v)− D(u)), and hence the difference in total cost is at edge e, and D(v) be the length of the shortest path from s to v in the residual graph. Add to each most e=(u,v) xe (D(v) − D(u)) = i D(ti ). Using edge e = (u, v) a capacity of xe , and augment our this, we get that cost(S ∗ ) ≥ i D(ti ) ≥ cost(S). network by adding a parallel edge e with constant delay D(v) − D(u). Note that the new capacity Note that a similar bound is not possible for a and the added links do not effect the equilibrium. model with both costs and delays, when additional We will show that for each edge e, the two paral- users compensate to some extent for the price of lel copies: edge e with new capacity xe and edge e , stability. Consider a problem with two parallel links can carry any number of paths at least as cheaply as e and e and k users. Assume on link e the cost is the original edge e could. Hence this change in the all design cost ce (x) = 1 + ε for a small ε > 0. On network only improves the minimum possible cost. the other link e the cost is all delay, and the delay ˆ Let G denote the resulting network flow problem. with x users is de (x) = 1/(k − x + 1). The optimum We will show that the minimum cost fractional solution is to use the first edge e, and it costs 1 + ε. ˆ flow in G is obtained by splitting the flow xe be- Note that the optimum with any number of extra tween the two edges e and e appropriately to make users costs the same, as this is all design cost. On the cost of the gradient equal. The claimed bound the other hand, the only Nash is to have all users will then follow by comparing the cost xe de (xe ) of on e , incurring delay 1, for a total cost of k. the edge at Nash equilibrium with the cost of the Note that the H(k) term in Corollary 3.2 comes corresponding two edges e and e in G. ˆ from the concave cost c, and so the bound obtained there improves by an H(k) factor when the cost consists of only delay. Roughgarden [24] showed a 4. Convergence of Best Response tighter bound for non-atomic games. He assumed that the delay is monotone increasing, and the total In this section, we address the convergence prop- cost of an edge xde (x) is a convex function of the erties of best response dynamics in our game. traffic x. He showed that for any class of such func- tions D containing all constant functions, the price Theorem 4.1 In the two player fair connection of anarchy is always obtained on a two node, two game, best response dynamics starting from any link network. Let us call α(D) the price of anarchy configuration converges to a Nash equilibrium in for non-atomic games with delays from the class D polynomial time. (which is also the price of stability, since the Nash The detailed proof appears in the extended version equilibrium is unique). For example, Roughgarden and shows that for any best response run, the num- [24] showed that for polynomials of degree at most l ber of edges shared by both players increases mono- this bound is O(l/ log l). Here we extend this result tonically. For more players, however, the hope of to a single source atomic game. any positive result about best response dynamics seems slim. In fact, we can show the following. Theorem 4.2 Best response dynamics for k play- fact, it is easy to show the more general fact that ers may run in time exponential in k. when player i moves, the change in Φ(S) is equal to the change in player i's payments scaled up by wi . The proof constructs an example of a game that This means that improving moves always decrease can simulate a k-bit counter. The extended version Φ(S), thus proving the theorem. contains details of the construction. Note that this applies not only to paths, but also 5. Weighted Players to the generalized model in which players select sub- sets from some ground set. The analogous condition So far we have assumed that players sharing an is that no ground element appears in the strategy edge e pay equal fractions of e's cost. We now con- spaces of more than two players. sider a game with fixed edge costs where players have weights wi ≥ 1, and players' payments are Corollary 5.2 Any two-player weighted game has proportional to their weight. More precisely, given a Nash equilibrium. a strategy S = (S1 , . . . , Sk ), define W to be the While the above potential function also implies a total weight of all players, and let We be the sum bound on the price of stability, even with only two of the weights of players using e. Then player i's players this bound is very weak. However, if there w payment for edge e will be Wi ce . e are only two players with weights 1 and w ≥ 1, Note that the potential function Φ(S) used for then we can show that the price of stability is at the unweighted version of the game is not a potential 1 most 1 + 1+w , and this is tight for all w. function once weights are added. In particular, in The following result shows the existence of Nash a weighted game, improving moves can increase the equilibria in weighted single commodity games. value of Φ(S), as this is no longer a congestion game. The following theorem uses a new potential function Theorem 5.3 For any weighted game in which all for a special class of weighted games. players have the same source s and sink t, best re- sponse dynamics converges to a Nash equilibrium, Theorem 5.1 In a weighted game where each edge and hence Nash equilibria exist. e is in the strategy spaces of at most two players, there exists a potential function for this game, and Proof: Start with any initial set of strategies S. hence a Nash equilibrium exists. For every s − t path P define the marginal cost of ce P to be c(P ) = e∈P We where We depends on Proof: Consider the following potential function. S. Observe that if player i currently uses path P , For each edge e used by players i and j, define then i's payment is wi c(P ). Define P (S) to be a tuple of the values c(P ) over all paths P , sorted in ce wi if player i uses e in S ce wj if player j uses e in S increasing order. We want to show that the cheapest Φe (S) = improving deviation of any player causes P (S) to ce θij if both players i and j use e in S 0 otherwise strictly decrease lexicographically. Suppose that one of the best moves for player i w w where θij = (wi + wj − wi i jj ). For any edge e with +w is to switch paths from P1 to P2 . Let P denote the only one player i, simply set Φe (S) = wi ce if i uses set of paths that intersect P1 ∪ P2 . For any pair e and 0 otherwise. Define Φ(S) = e Φe (S). We of paths P and Q, let cP (Q) denote the new value now simply need to argue that if a player makes an of c(Q) after player i has switched to path P . To improving move, then Φ(S) decreases. Consider a show that P (S) strictly decreases lexicographically, player i and an edge e that player i joins. If the edge it suffices to show that already supported another player j, then i's cost for min cP2 (P ) < min c(P ). (2) using e is ce wiwi j , while the change in Φe (S) is +w P ∈P P ∈P wi wj wi 2 Define P = arg minP ∈P c(P ). Since P2 was i's ce (wi − ) = ce . best response, cP2 (P2 ) ≤ cP (P ) for all paths P . wi + w j wi + w j In particular, cP2 (P2 ) ≤ cP (P ). We also know Thus the change in potential when i joins e equals that cP (P ) ≤ c(P ), since in deviating to P , the cost i incurs, scaled up by a factor of wi . In player i adds itself to some edges of P . In fact, cP (P ) < c(P ) unless P = P1 . Assuming P = P1 , [7] A. Fabrikant, A. Luthra, E. Maneva, S. Papadim- we now have that cP2 (P2 ) < c(P ), which proves in- itriou, and S. Shenker. On a network creation equality 2. If P = P1 , then since player i decided to game. PODC, 2003. deviate, cP2 (P2 ) < c(P1 ). Therefore, we once again [8] A. Fabrikant, C. Papadimitriou, and K. Talwar. have that cP2 (P2 ) < c(P ), as desired. The complexity of pure nash equilibria. STOC, 2004. [9] J. Feigenbaum, C. Papadimitriou, and S. Shenker. In the case where the graph consists of only 2 Sharing the cost of multicast transmissions. JCSS, nodes s and t joined by parallel links, we can simi- 63:21–41, 2001. larly show that any sequence of improving responses [10] H. Heller and S. Sarangi. Nash networks with het- converge to a Nash equilibrium. erogeneous agents. Working Paper Series, E-2001- With arbitrarily increasing cost functions, [17] 1, Virginia Tech, 2001. gives an example demonstrating that a weighted [11] S. Herzog, S. Shenker, and D. Estrin. Sharing game may not have any pure Nash equilibria. How- the "cost" of multicast trees: An axiomatic analy- ever, it is still an open problem to determine sis. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Dec. 1997. whether weighted games with fixed costs always [12] K. Jain and V. Vazirani. Applications of approx- have Nash Equilibria. While the authors believe imation algorithms to cooperative games. STOC, they do, it is not clear how to adapt a potential-style 2001. argument to prove this. The construction above [13] R. Johari and J. Tsitsiklis. Efficiency loss in a net- does not even extend to games where 3 players share work resource allocation game. Mathematics of Op- an edge. However, in either case, the following claim erations Research, to appear. shows that the price of stability bounds from the [14] F. Kelly. Charging and rate control for elastic unweighted case will not carry over. traffic. European Transactions on Telecommuni- cations, 8:33–37, 1997. [15] K. Kent and D. Skorin-Kapov. Population mono- Theorem 5.4 There are weighted games for which ton cost allocation on mst's. Operations Research the price of stability is Θ(log W ) and Θ(k). Proceedings KOI, pages 43–48, 1996. [16] E. Koutsoupias and C. Papadimitriou. Worst-case An example exhibiting this is a modified version equilibria. STACS, 1999. of the graph in Figure 1. Change the edge with cost [17] L. Libman and A. Orda. Atomic resource sharing in 1 + ε to cost 1, and for all other edges with positive noncooperative networks. Telecommunication Sys- 1 cost, set the new cost to be 2 . For 1 ≤ i ≤ k let tems, 17:4:385–409, 2001. i−1 [18] D. Monderer and D. Samet. In Handbook of Game player i have weight wi = 2 . Since each player has a greater weight than all smaller weight players Theory Vol. III. Elsevier Science, 2002. combined, the only Nash equilibrium has cost k = [19] D. Monderer and L. Shapley. Potential games. 2 Games and Economic Behavior, 14:124–143, 1996. Θ(log W ), while the optimal solution has cost 1. [20] H. Moulin and S. Shenker. Strategyproof sharing of submodular costs: Budget balance versus effi- References ciency. Duke Economics Working Paper, 96-31, 1996. [21] C. Papadimitriou. Algorithms, games, and the in- [1] E. Anshelevich, A. Dasgupta, E. Tardos, and ternet. STOC, 2001. T. Wexler. Near-optimal network design with self- [22] R. W. Rosenthal. The network equilibrium prob- ish agents. STOC, 2003. lem in integers. Networks, 3:53–59, 1973. [2] V. Bala and S. Goyal. A non-cooperative model of [23] T. Roughgarden. Stackelberg scheduling strategies. network formation. Econometrica, 68, 2000. STOC, 2001. [3] M. Beckmann, C. B. McGuire, and C. B. Winsten. [24] T. Roughgarden. The price of anarchy is indepen- Studies in the Economics of Transportation. Yale dent of the network topology. STOC, 2002. University Press, 1956. ´ [25] T. Roughgarden and E. Tardos. How bad is selfish [4] J. Correa, A. Schulz, and N. S. Moses. Selfish rout- routing? FOCS, 2000. ing in capacitated networks. Mathematics of Op- [26] A. Vetta. Nash equilibria in competitive societies erations Research, 2003. with applications to facility location, traffic routing o [5] A. Czumaj, P. Krysta, and B. V¨cking. Selfish and auctions. FOCS, 2002. traffic allocation for server farms. STOC, 2002. o [6] A. Czumaj and B. V¨cking. Tight bounds for worst-case equilibria. SODA, 2002.
Pages to are hidden for
"u"Please download to view full document


text:
Resolution: standard / high
Figure 2.
Mastomys natalensis, the reservoir of Lassa virus. The animal is commonly known as the "multimammate rat" due to the female's multiple and prominent mammary glands, as seen in the right-hand panel. Photos: L. Moses and D. Bausch.
Kelly et al. BMC International Health and Human Rights 2013 13:2 doi:10.1186/1472-698X-13-2

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Stock fan on core2duo limit?
Right, I've recently got a new motherboard, a nice sli one.
I've noticed that I can overlclock my e6600 2.4 to some good speeds without any signs of unstability. Currently it's clocked at 3.24ghz and I'm wondering how far the stock fan will actually take it? shall I just keep boosting it up gradually and see when it starts randomly shutting down/overheating?
Re: Stock fan on core2duo limit?
Sounds like a plan to me :)
Re: Stock fan on core2duo limit?
Uhhhh... monitor your temps while doing this... don't count on a shutdown as keeping your CPU safe.
Re: Stock fan on core2duo limit?
And just keep in mind that because it works today at a certain speed, it may not tomorrow if its warmer in the house. Always leave some headroom when it comes to cooling. Never run at the limit.
|All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:12 AM.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2015, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©1998 - 2014, nV News.


text: Black undershirts... 2x Tall or 3x Tall? [Archive] - Glock Talk Glock Talk > Serving America > Cop Talk > Black undershirts... 2x Tall or 3x Tall? PDA View Full Version : Black undershirts... 2x Tall or 3x Tall? sharpshooter11-21-2011, 17:55Anyone have a source for black undershirts in 2xl Tall or better 3xl Tall? Thinner material is preferred... Gotta be Tall. blueiron11-21-2011, 22:25Cotton t-shirts or are you wanting under-armor style stuff? JimBianchi11-21-2011, 23:35I bought some from Kohls.com recently that were excellent. http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/big_tall/shirts_polos/tees_henleys/PRD~893602/Dickies+Solid+Pocket+Tee++Big+and+Tall.jsp NyGlockcop11-22-2011, 20:12Try LL Bean, nice t tshirts and they offer tall sizes. SCSU7411-23-2011, 11:38I wear under armour tnp t. The size is regular xxl, but it is very long and says tucked all shift. Best shirts I've found. For comparison I normally wear xxl tall polos. Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine lawman80011-24-2011, 04:08People I know swear by Walmart's Champ line ede11-24-2011, 08:13Carhartt has 2x and 3x in tall. Might have to settle for a pocket. I buy lot of my stuff here: http://dungarees.net/index.php kels11-27-2011, 01:22Go to www.landsend.com. Sign up for the email sales alerts. Wait for sale, which happen regularly. vBulletin® v3.8.7, Copyright ©2000-2015, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.


text:
The Hatewatch blog is managed by the staff of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights organization.
Skinheads Exploit Anger Over Immigration
Racist skinheads, once so pervasive in the area that Portland earned the nickname "Skinhead City," have largely vanished from the region's cultural landscape over the past decade.
Bad Week for Alamo Ministries
The first week of October was a rough one for World Pastor Tony Alamo, the cult leader who for decades has claimed "homosexuality is caused by demon possession" and the U.S. government is an agent of the "satanic" Catholic Church.
On Oct. 2, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries member Leslie Ray "Buster" White was indicted by a federal grand jury in Tyler, Texas, on charges of trafficking in 1,475 pairs of counterfeit Nike tennis shoes as well as illegally copied CDs. (White has been described as the associate pastor of Alamo Ministries, although Alamo denied that to the Texarkana [Texas] Gazette.) During an FBI raid of White's Great American Outlet Mall — where the counterfeit goods were allegedly sold — federal agents also seized nearly $110,000 in cash. ( continue to full post… )
Neo-Confederate Movie Director Takes on New Cause
Movie director Ronald Maxwell (below, right) — the writer, director and producer of the god-awful 2003 movie "Gods and Generals," a wildly pro-Confederate and ahistorical take on the Civil War — has adopted a new cause: the threat allegedly posed to right-thinking Americans by undocumented Mexican immigrants. In a Sept. 17 interview with Jeff Mellott of the Daily News Record of Harrisonburg, Va., Maxwell declared that Mexican immigrants' ultimate goal was "outright annexation" of the Southwestern United States. Adopting the so-called reconquista conspiracy theory widely touted by the radical right, Maxwell explained to Mellot that "they [Mexican politicians and intellectuals] see it as a re-conquering." "The American people are funding their own suicide," Maxwell said. "If we stop paying taxes, this craziness stops."
Maxwell also last month stumped for anti-immigrant hard-liners running for Republican offices in Virginia. The Washington Post reported on Sept. 23 that Maxwell wrote in to the Loudoun Times-Mirror, which covers the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., to ask: "Why on earth would we want to create the conditions in the American Southwest, or for that matter all across America, for future civil strife, or in a worst case scenario, civil war?" Similarly, in an open letter to President Bush last year, Maxwell referred to immigration as an "invasion masquerading as immigration." He told Bush that his legacy would be described "as the President who saved (or lost) the South-West of the United States." ( continue to full post… )
Lawyer Decries Hate-Mongering And Vigilantism
There was a time when a big brother would be in hot water back home if he didn't stick up for his little sister outside the house. No such scolding will be necessary for Ramon Murguia.
Flag Ripper Denies Posting Racist Comments
The UNM student who ignited controversy when he ripped apart a Mexican flag last month had earlier posted a statement on the Internet calling Mexicans "wet-backs," a university department charged Tuesday.
District Attorney Holds Controversial Immigrant Crime Forum
Roy Johnson is happy somebody is going to do something about the murderers, rapists, thieves and thugs that District Attorney Ken Buck says are sneaking into Weld County from Mexico.
Minuteman Project Re-Schedules Forum With Ohio Sheriff
A month after its original conference was canceled, the Illinois Minuteman Project has found a place to hold its anti-illegal immigration seminar.
Extremist Group Announces Speech by Congressman
The Robert A. Taft Club, a group headed by a man with a network of racist connections, has announced that a U.S. congressman, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), will address the group this Thursday at a restaurant in Arlington, Va.
The Taft Club is led by Marcus Epstein (right), who serves as the executive director of both white nationalist Pat Buchanan's The American Cause and the Team America PAC, which is run by Buchanan's sister, Bay Buchanan. Epstein writes for the anti-immigrant hate site vdare.com and he advocates for white supremacist organizations. He is especially fond of American Renaissance — a white supremacist journal that has suggested that blacks have "psychopathic personalities" — and attends the journal's biannual conferences. In 2006, Epstein invited the head of American Renaissance's parent organization, Jared Taylor, to speak to the Taft Club on the issue of "Race and Conservatism." ( continue to full post… )
Photographer Banned from National Press Club Press Conference
Scott Suchman, an accomplished photographer hired by the Intelligence Report to photograph a press conference put on Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., by the hate group The Social Contract Press, was thrown out of the event by its organizers. The Press Club is considered the "sanctum sanctorum of American journalists" and is dedicated to "the promotion of free expression."
When Suchman arrived at the Club's Lisagor Room with camera in hand, he was questioned about who he was free-lancing for. He was told by Diana Hull, head of the press conference's co-sponsor Californians for Population Stabilization, that because he was shooting photographs for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which publishes the Report, he could not attend.
Club House Manager David King told Hatewatch that the Club doesn't censor or discriminate against those who rent their facilities. "Those crazy folks have the full right to say that they don't want a [particular] photographer in their event," he explained. The press conference's organizer, Fran Griffin of Griffin Communications, held another event that featured speeches by several hate group members at the Club in March. One speech, by "radical traditionalist Catholic" E. Michael Jones, consisted of an anti-Semitic rant about the evil "revolutionary Jew," which was so rabid it caused C-SPAN to cancel its planned coverage of the event.
Day Two: Charges Against Strom Dismissed
A federal judge in Charlottesville, Va., yesterday dismissed charges of sexually enticing a 10-year-old girl and intimidating a witness against neo-Nazi leader Kevin Alfred Strom, ending the case. The move came during the second day of Strom's trial, after the prosecution rested its case against the founder of National Vanguard, who took a "leave of absence" as leader after the charges were brought last year. Prosecutors had detailed how Strom, 50, sent the child gifts, drove by her house and school, and wrote in his computer about how he wanted to marry the girl. But a day earlier, U.S. District Judge Norman Moon, hearing accounts of Strom's wife discovering him naked, sexually aroused, and staring at computer images of young girls' faces with older women's naked bodies superimposed, sounded skeptical. Moon pointed out that the images were not illegal and added, "It's not illegal to sit there naked." Strom still faces a January federal trial for possession of child pornography.