A Fairness Relation Based on the Asymmetric Choquet Integral and Its Application in Network Resource Allocation Problems

Abstract

The recent problem of network resource allocation is studied where pairs of users could be in a favourable situation, given that the allocation scheme is refined by some add-on technology. The general question here is whether the additional effort can be effective with regard to the user’s experience of fairness. The computational approach proposed in this paper to handle this question is based on the framework of relational optimization. For representing different weightings for different pairs of users, the use of a fuzzy measure appears to be reasonable. The generalized Choquet integrals are discussed from the viewpoint of representing fairness and it is concluded that the asymmetric Choquet integral is the most suitable approach. A binary relation using the asymmetric Choquet integral is proposed. In case of a supermodular fuzzy measure, this is a transitive and cycle-free relation. The price of fairness with regard to a wireless channel allocation problem taking channel interference into account is experimentally studied and it can be seen that the asymmetric on relation actually selects allocations that perform on average between maxmin fairness and proportional fairness, and being more close to maxmin fairness as long as channel interference is not high.