Energy Consumption in Radio Networks: Selfish Agents and Rewarding Mechanisms

We consider the range assignment problem in ad-hoc wireless networks in the context of selfish agents: a network manager aims in assigning transmission ranges to the stations so to achieve a suitable network with a minimal overall energy; stations are not directly controlled by the manager and may refuse to transmit with a certain transmission range because this results in a power consumption proportional to that range. We investigate the existence of payment schemes which induce the stations to cooperate with a network manager computing a range assignment, that is, truthful mechanisms for the range assignment problem.