1218 IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 26, NO.

7, SEPTEMBER 2008

Adaptive Routing Strategies in IEEE 802.16

Multi-Hop Wireless Backhaul Networks Based On
Evolutionary Game Theory
Markos P. Anastasopoulos Student Member, IEEE, Pantelis-Daniel M. Arapoglou, Member, IEEE, Rajgopal
Kannan, and Panayotis G. Cottis

Abstract—The high frequency segment (10-66GHz) of the
IEEE 802.16 standard seems promising for the implementation
of wireless backhaul networks carrying large volumes of Internet
traffic. In contrast to wireline backbone networks, where channel
errors seldom occur, routing decisions in IEEE 802.16 networks
are conditioned by wireless channel impairments rather than
by congestion, exclusively. This renders a cross-layer routing
approach between the routing and the physical layers more
appropriate during fading periods. In this paper, an adaptive
cross-layer routing scheme is presented based on the selection of
the most reliable path in terms of packet error ratio (unipath
routing). The paper argues that routing Internet traffic through
wireless backhaul networks is modeled more realistically em-
ploying evolutionary rather than conventional game theory. The
stability of the proposed routing algorithm is proven and the
dependence of the speed of convergence on various physical layer
parameters is investigated. Is is also shown that convergence may
be further accelerated by increasing the amount of information
from the physical layer, specifically the physical separation
between the alternative paths provided to the routing layer.
Index Terms—Evolutionary game theory, IEEE 802.16, multi-
hop wireless backhaul networks, adaptive routing.
I. I NTRODUCTION
I NTERNET based multimedia applications, such as voice
and video, have been the locomotive for the recent growth
of broadband access technologies. Although conventional
backbone networks (e.g. copper or optical fiber cables) can
afford large bandwidths, backhaul networks carrying the ag-
gregate traffic from the access points to the backbone net-
work through gateway stations remain the bottleneck of these
multimedia applications [1]. Nevertheless, after the release
of the IEEE 802.16 WirelessMAN WiMAX1 standard [2],
multi-hop wireless backhaul networks (MHWBN) appear a
cost effective solution to provide ubiquitous Internet services.
This is especially true for the high frequency air interface of
WiMAX in the 10-66GHz range, where bandwidth exceeding
1GHz is available. Hence, compared with existing backhaul
solutions, MHWBN significantly reduce deployment costs and
also enable fast and flexible network configurations by offering
Manuscript received August 15, 2007; revised March 10, 2008.
M. P. Anastasopoulos, P.-D. M. Arapoglou, and P. G. Cottis are with the
Wireless & Satellite Communications Group, Division of Information Trans-
mission Systems and Materials Technology, School of Electrical & Computer
Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece, GR15780 (e-
mail: mark@mail.ntua.gr, parap@central.ntua.gr, pcottis@central.ntua.gr).
R. Kannan is with the Department of Computer Science, Louisiana State
University (e-mail: rkannan@csc.lsu.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSAC.2008.080918.
1 Worldwide interoperability for microwave access
0733-8716/08/$25.00 
c 2008 IEEE
protection against link failures and by allowing adaptive
rerouting strategies under adverse channel conditions.
From the physical layer point of view, given that line-of-
sight (LOS) operation is specified for IEEE 802.16 Wireless-
MAN in the frequency range 10-66GHz [3], two operating
conditions exist:
(a) Favourable channel conditions for high annual percent-
ages corresponding to clear sky and
(b) Unfavourable channel conditions for small annual per-
centages corresponding to rain fading, causing high error
rates, thereby deteriorating transmission [4].
In the first case, typical routing algorithms may be employed
to deal with congestion, whereas, in the second, a cross-layer
approach between the routing layer and the physical layer
seems more appropriate to take into account severe physical
layer impairments [5].
As for routing IP traffic, typical routing algorithms which
allow a single entity to take the routing decisions based on an
overall network optimization criterion seem to be inefficient
[6]. As a consequence, the current trend is to allow the network
nodes themselves to adaptively choose their routing strategy.
This allows nodes to optimize their own performance selfishly,
that is without considering the impact on the overall network
[7], [8]. In case the routing decisions are taken by a finite
number of nodes, the appropriate optimization concept is
based on the Nash Equilibrium (NE) [9]. In contrast, when
each node carries a small portion of a large volume of traffic,
the Wardrop Equilibrium (WE) [10] seems more appropriate.
In conventional game theory, the objective of a player is to
choose a routing strategy that maximizes its payoff. The game
is played exactly once by fully rational players, all of them
having complete and accurate knowledge about the details
of the game. However, in modeling complex networks such
as MHWBN, it is questionable whether these assumptions
are valid, since players not only have limited rationality but,
also, whenever rain fading exists, the network becomes a
highly dynamic transmission environment. A more reasonable
approach would be to let the players learn empirically how to
select their own routing strategies during the game; this leads
to the concept of evolutionary game theory (EGT) [11], [12].
The present study focuses on setting up flows that adaptively
route information via the most reliable path employing EGT
during periods when adverse channel conditions prevail. An
EGT based adaptive routing scheme, which depends on the
observed path latencies has been discussed in [13]. However,
to the authors’ knowledge, no cross-layer work on this subject

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ANASTASOPOULOS et al.: ADAPTIVE ROUTING STRATEGIES IN IEEE 802.16 MULTI-HOP WIRELESS BACKHAUL NETWORKS
has been carried out so far, particularly for IEEE 802.16
MHWBN. The large information flows accommodated by the
MHWBN consist of packets –referred to as agents according
to the EGT terminology– each carrying an infinitesimal load
compared to the total traffic; this profile corresponds to IP
traffic. The aim is to minimize the individual end-to-end
packet error ratio (PER) without considering the impact on
the overall network performance. The routing strategy of every
agent is continuously updated by sampling all the alternative
paths, taking advantage of the information obtained from the
physical layer. The population of agents using each strategy
is modeled based on the population dynamics model known
as the replicator dynamics [14].
After a brief overview of EGT in Section II, its application
to the proposed network model is presented in Section III,
where the maximum reliability routing problem is formulated
applying EGT. First, it is proven that the proposed routing
algorithm is asymptotically stable. Also, the impact of several
physical layer parameters on the speed of convergence is
investigated. Motivated by the previous results, in Section IV,
a simple algorithm –the path correlation coefficient (PCC)
algorithm– is proposed to accelerate the convergence of the
routing scheme. Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section V.
II. E VOLUTIONARY G AME T HEORY: BASIC C ONCEPTS
In a conventional game, the objective of a rational player is
to choose the strategy which maximizes its payoff. Instead, in
the frame of EGT, the game is played repeatedly by agents2
randomly drawn from a large population [11], [12]. In general,
an evolutionary process combines two significant mechanisms:
a mutation mechanism which provides varieties and a selection
mechanism which favours some varieties over others. The role
of mutation is highlighted by the notion of Evolutionary Stable
Strategies (ESS) –which is a refinement of the NE–, while
selection is associated to the replicator dynamics model, which
assumes that a subpopulation grows (declines) when it plays
strategies that are better (worse) than average.
A. Evolutionary Stable Strategies
ESS is a key concept in EGT. A population following
such a strategy is invincible. Specifically, suppose that the
initial population is programmed to play a certain pure or
mixed strategy3 x (the incumbent strategy). Then, let a small
population share of agents  ∈ (0, 1) play a different pure or
mixed strategy y (the mutant strategy). Hence, if an individual
is drawn to play the game, the probabilities that its opponent
plays the incumbent strategy x and the mutant strategy y are
1 −  and , respectively. The payoff of such a game is the
same as that of a game where the individual plays the mixed
strategy w = y + (1 − )x. The payoffs of strategies x and
y given that the opponent adopts strategy w are denoted by
u(x, w) and u(y, w), respectively.
Definition 1. A strategy x is called evolutionary stable if,
for every strategy y = x, a certain  ∈ (0, 1) exists, such that
2 Players in EGT.
3 In terms of routing, a strategy is characterized as pure (or mixed) when
a single (or multiple) path(s) is (are) selected to route the information to the
destination.
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1219
the inequality
u[x, y + (1 − )x] > u[y, y + (1 − )x] (1)
holds for all  ∈ (0, ).
A weaker notion of evolutionary stability also exists, called
neutral stability. Instead of requiring that all mutant strategies
gain less than the incumbent strategy x, in neutral stability it
is required that no mutant strategy prospers, in the sense that
it gains a higher payoff than the incumbent strategy.
Definition 2. A strategy x is called neutral stable if, for
every strategy y = x, a certain  ∈ (0, 1) exists, such that
inequality
u[x, y + (1 − )x] ≥ u[y, y + (1 − )x] (2)
holds for all  ∈ (0, ).
Using the linearity property of the payoff function, (1)
yields
(1 − )u(x, x) + u(x, y) > (1 − )u(y, x) + u(y, y) (3)
If  is close to zero, (3) yields either
u(x, x) > u(y, x) (4)
or
u(x, x) = u(y, x) and u(x, y) > u(y, y) (5)
Hence, it becomes obvious that an ESS must be a NE;
otherwise, (4) does not hold. Furthermore, any strict NE is
an ESS [15].
B. The Replicator Dynamics
The replicator dynamics, first proposed by Taylor and
Jonker [14], specifies how population shares associated with
different pure strategies evolve over time. In contrast to
evolutionary stability, in replicator dynamics agents are pro-
grammed to play only pure strategies4 . To define the replicator
dynamics, we consider a large but finite population of agents
all programmed to play pure strategy k ∈ K, where K is
the set of strategies. At any instant t, let λk (t) ≥ 0 be the
number of agents programmed to play pure strategy k. The

total population of agents is given by λ(t) = k∈K λk (t).
Let xk (t) = λk (t)/λ(t) be the fraction of agents using pure
strategy k at time t. The associated population state is defined
by the vector x(t) = [x1 (t), . . . , xk (t), . . . , xK (t)]. Then,
the expected payoff of using pure strategy k given that the
population is in state x is u(k, x) and the population average
payoff, that is the payoff of an  agent drawn randomly from
K
the population, is u(x, x) = k=1 xk · u(k, x). Suppose
that payoffs are proportional to the reproduction rate of each
individual and, furthermore, that a strategy profile is inherited.
This leads to the following dynamics for the population shares
xk
ẋk = xk · [u(k, x) − u(x, x)] (6)
where ẋk is the time derivative of xk . Equation (6) states
that populations with better (worse) strategies than average
grow (shrink). However, there are cases when even a strictly
4 In network terminology, this assumption is related to packets not being
fragmented while traversing multiple hops.
1220
dominated strategy may gain more than average. Hence, it is
not a priori clear whether such strategies get wiped out in
the replicator dynamics. The following theorem answers this
question [11]:
Theorem 1: If a pure strategy k is strictly dominated then
ξk (t, x0 )t→∞ → 0, where ξk (t, x0 ) is the population at time
t and x0 is the initial state.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the ratio xk /x
of two population shares xk > 0 and x > 0 increases with
time if the strictly dominated strategy k gains a higher payoff
than the strictly dominated strategy . This is a direct result
of (6) and may be expressed analytically via
 
d xk xk
= [u(k, x) − u(, x)] (7)
dt x x
From (7) it is evident that even suboptimal strategies could
temporarily increase their share before being wiped out in the
long run. However, there is a close connection between the
steady states of the replicator dynamics, that is states where
the population shares do not change their strategy over time,
and NE. Thus, since in NE all strategies have the same average
payoff, every NE is a steady state. The reverse is not always
true: Steady states are not necessarily NE, e.g., any state where
all agents use the same pure strategy is a steady state, but, it
is not stable [11].
III. A PPLICATION TO M ULTI -H OP W IRELESS BACKHAUL
N ETWORKS
A. Network Model
Next, the general theoretical framework outlined in the
previous section is adapted to the routing problem under
consideration. Specifically, consider an IEEE 802.16 MHWBN
represented by an undirected graph G(N, L), where N is the
number of nodes and L is the number of links. It is assumed
that the information generated at the source node S must be
transmitted to the destination node D. For example, S and D
may represent the gateway stations connecting the MHWBN to
the Internet backbone at the two ends of the metropolitan area
network. The set of all available paths (strategies) connecting
the source and the destination nodes is denoted by K. The net-
work information
 flow is accommodated by a total population
of λ = k∈K λk packets (agents), where λk is the number of
packets following path k. The normalized number of packets
xk = λk /λ programmed to use each path is collected in the
vector x = [x1 , . . . , xk , . . . , xK ] (population state).
The objective is to find a positive flow vector λ =
[λ1 , . . . , λk , . . . , λK ] that routes information via the paths
k ∈ K with the minimum end-to-end PER, under the flow
conservation condition
0 ≤ λk ≤ Λk , k∈K
where Λk is the capacity of path k. A similar formulation may
be found in [16]-[18], where multiple parallel paths are used
to route information from a single source node to a single
destination node.
In the present work, PER is used as a figure of merit
for the data transfer reliability. However, for LOS wireless
links operating at frequencies above 10GHz, rain attenuation
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IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 26, NO. 7, SEPTEMBER 2008
A is the appropriate physical layer metric. If the modulation
scheme, code rate, power level and packet size are known,
PER may be expressed as an increasing function of A, that
is P ER = f (A). Consequently, the data transfer reliability
increases as A decreases and the most reliable path is the one
suffering from the minimum rain attenuation. Therefore, as
indicated by the following cross-layer analysis, the decisions
related to routing with maximum reliability should be based on
rain attenuation, as determined from the inverse relationship
A = f −1 (P ER).
B. Rerouting Dynamics
Originally, all agents select one of the possible routing paths
at random. Since every agent wishes to minimize its own end-
to-end PER from the source node S to the destination node
D, it reconsiders periodically its routing strategy by randomly
sampling different paths and comparing the corresponding
PER with its own PER. When a lower value is found, the
agent switches to a new path; otherwise, the current routing
strategy remains unchanged. It is evident that one of the basic
elements of the replicator dynamics is the rate at which agents
revise their strategy. This rate depends on the performance of
the agents current strategy and on the population state x. In
the following, the average review rate of an agent employing
strategy k will be denoted as rk (x), k ∈ K. Significant
elements of the problem are the switching probabilities of
a reviewing agent: The probability that a reviewing agent
switches from strategy (path) k to strategy (path)  is denoted
by pk (x). Hence, the number of agents switching from path

k to path  is x k · rk (x) · pk (x). Consequently, the outflow

from path k is
 ∈K,=k xk ·rk (x) · pk (x)  = xk · rk (x) ·
 k
p
∈K,=k  k (x) = xk · rk (x) 1 − p k (x) , while the inflow
k
to path k is ∈K,=k x ·r (x)·p (x). Subtracting the outflow
from the inflow, the following differential equation comes up
  
ẋk = x · r (x) · pk (x) − xk · rk (x) · 1 − pkk (x)
∈K,=k

= x · r (x) · pk (x) − xk · rk (x) (9)
∈K
which satisfies the replicator dynamics model introduced in
(6).
The procedure of sampling strategy  by an agent using
strategy k is based on the reported values of the rain at-
tenuation Ak and A along the corresponding paths k and
, respectively. The reviewing agent switches to the sampled
strategy if and only if the observed rain attenuation differ-
ence is positive, i.e. Ak > A . The difference between the
random variables Ak and A is also a random variable with
a continuously differentiable cumulative distribution function
φ : R → [0, 1]. The conditional probability that an agent will
(8)
switch to strategy , given that its current strategy is k, is
φ(Ak − A ) = Pr{Ak − A > 0|Ak > 0, A > 0} (10)
The above probability is determined analytically in the Ap-
pendix, where a pure propagation approach is presented con-
cerning the joint statistics of rain fading over two paths taking
into account their spatial correlation properties. Moreover,
since the probability of an agent who samples path  is
ANASTASOPOULOS et al.: ADAPTIVE ROUTING STRATEGIES IN IEEE 802.16 MULTI-HOP WIRELESS BACKHAUL NETWORKS
x (strategy profiles are inherited), the resulting conditional
switching probability is given by
 du
xφ(Ak − A ) if k = 
pk (x) = (11)
1 − i=k,i∈K xi φ(Ak − Ai ) if k = 
Assuming for simplicity that rk (x) = 1 reviews per unit of
time, ∀k ∈ K, the substitution of (11) into (9) yields the
following selection dynamics
 ⎜ 0 n31 · · ·
ẋk = xk x [φ(A − Ak ) − φ(Ak − A )] (12)
∈K, k=
Setting for brevity
nk = φ(A − Ak ) − φ(Ak − A )
and substituting into (12), the following state equation results
 ∗
ẋk = xk x · nk (14)
∈K,k=
C. Stability Analysis
In this part of the analysis, the stability of the proposed
routing algorithm is examined. It is proven that, if the system
operates under rain fading conditions, unipath routing is an
evolutionary stable strategy. Therefore, two paths k,  ∈ K
connecting node S to node D cannot exhibit the same perfor-
mance with regard to reliability during data transfer.
Lemma 1: Under long term rain fading conditions, two
paths cannot suffer from the same level of rain attenuation.
Proof: The proof of the Lemma is straightforward: Since
Ak and A are random variables in certain real number ranges,
the probability that the relevant paths suffer equally from long
term rain attenuation tends to zero.
Next, it is shown that under rain fading conditions, all data
are routed via a single path (unipath routing). The proof is
based on Lyapunov’s first method.
Theorem 2: Under long term rain fading, if the flow re-
quirements do not exceed the path capacity, unipath routing
is ESS.
Proof: The set of differential equations in (14) must
satisfy the constraints
xk ≥ 0, k ∈ K,
 of the routing scheme on the operational frequency f of the
xk = 1
k∈K
The critical points of the system are determined by setting
(14) equal to zero and solving the resulting system of algebraic
equations. At this point, one may assume that A1 < . . . <
Ak < . . . < AK . Then, based on Lemma 1 and taking into
account the constraints previously stated, the unique solution
of the system corresponds to the population state vector x∗ =
[1 0 0 · · · 0] of dimension K.
Substituting x1 = 1−x2 −x3 −· · ·−xK , the previous set of
differential equations (14) is rewritten in the downsized ver-
sion (15), where by X(t) = [X1 (t), . . . , Xk (t), . . . , XK−1 (t)]
the corresponding downsized population vector of dimen-
sion (K − 1) is denoted which is almost linear around the
equilibrium point X∗ = [0 0 · · · 0]. Then, employing the
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1221
transformation x = X + u, (15) is transformed into the linear
matrix equation
= Qu (16)
dt
where Q is a (K − 1) × (K − 1) matrix. Its elements are the
partial derivatives (17) evaluated at the equilibrium state X∗ .
Equation (17) easily leads to the evaluation of Q
⎛ ⎞
n21 0 ··· 0
0 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
Q=⎜ . . .. ⎟ (18)
⎝ .. .. . ⎠
0 0 · · · nK1
From (18), it is deduced that n21 , n31 , . . . ,nK1 are the
(13) eigenvalues of Q. Since for every k, k = 2, . . . , K,
nk1 = −φ(Ak − A1 ) < 0 (19)
the solution X = [0 0 · · · 0] is asymptotically stable and,
consequently, all information is routed via path 1. Given that a
strategy is evolutionary stable if and only if it is asymptotically
stable [19], this unipath routing strategy is also evolutionary
stable.
The above analysis leads to the conclusion that, if the flow
requirements do not exceed the capacity of the most reliable
path, all information will be routed via this path. Otherwise,
if the capacity of the most reliable path cannot accommodate
the information flow is required, a part of the flow will remain
routed via the most reliable path and the rest of the flow will
be routed via the second, the third, and so on, next reliable
paths.
D. Convergence Analysis
To investigate the speed of convergence of the proposed
routing algorithm, the MHWBN topology depicted in Fig.1
is considered: Five multi-hop paths connect the source to the
destination node. For simplicity, the horizontal and vertical
distances d between adjacent nodes are assumed equal. Also,
P ER1 < P ER2 < P ER3 < P ER4 < P ER5 , that is A1 <
A2 < A3 < A4 < A5 is assumed. Since the focus is on a
cross-layer routing scheme, the speed of convergence will be
examined solely as a function of physical layer parameters,
which, in turn, determine the extent of rain fading and the
relevant levels of PER. For instance, in Fig.2 the dependence
IEEE 802.16 system is examined. The unipath routing effect
is established after about 100 path samplings. The algorithm
converges faster for f =25GHz than for f =20GHz. In the
numerical calculations, a node distance d = 1km has been
assumed. The path sampling periods of the figures correspond
to multiples of the S-D round trip time (RTT).
Similar conclusions are obtained from Fig.3, where the
evolution of the population shares is shown for two different
node distances d. It is observed that the algorithm converges
faster for larger values of d. This is attributed to the fact that
large values of d result in decorrelation of rain fading over
the various paths. Hence, the differences in the performance
of the corresponding links are larger and a greater variety
between the strategies (routing paths) becomes available; this
accelerates the convergence.
1222 IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 26, NO. 7, SEPTEMBER 2008

 

K

Ẋk = Xk nk1 (1 − Xk ) + Xi · (nki − rk1 ) , k = 2, . . . , K (15)

i=2,i=k

⎡  K ⎤
∂Xk nk1 (1 − Xk ) + i=2,i=k Xi · (nki − rk1 )
qk =⎣ ⎦
∂X
X=X∗
k,  = 2, . . . , K (17)

Fig. 1. MHWBN topology: Five parallel multi-hop paths connecting the source node S to the destination node D.

Fig. 2. Dependence of the speed of convergence of the proposed cross-layer Fig. 4. Dependence of the speed of convergence of the proposed cross-layer
routing algorithm on frequency. routing algorithm on the climatic conditions (f =20GHz).

Finally, the dependence of the speed of convergence on the

Fig. 3. Dependence of the speed of convergence of the proposed cross-layer
routing algorithm on the node distance (f =20GHz).
climatic conditions of the area where the MHWBN is deployed
is illustrated in Fig.4. In this example, the proposed routing
procedure is applied for two climatic regions: Mediterranean
and Central European. The routing algorithm converges faster
in Central Europe, where rainfall is more intense, leading
to higher attenuation differences among the various paths.
Furthermore, note that in Figs.2-4, the number of agents that
use path 2, although being a strictly dominated strategy (i.e.
vanishes in the long run according to Theorem 1), tends to
increase its share during the first few path samplings, where
its payoff is higher than average.

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ANASTASOPOULOS et al.: ADAPTIVE ROUTING STRATEGIES IN IEEE 802.16 MULTI-HOP WIRELESS BACKHAUL NETWORKS
IV. A N I MPROVED S AMPLING A LGORITHM T O
ACCELERATE C ONVERGENCE
A. Algorithm Description
So far it has been assumed that agents select randomly their
routing strategies from the set of available paths connecting
the source to the destination node. In this section, motivated
by the results of the previous convergence analysis, a simple
algorithm to accelerate convergence is presented which takes
advantage of the spatial correlation of the rainfall medium
in wireless channels operating at frequencies above 10GHz.
Actually, this property is exploited by cell-site diversity to
mitigate rain fading and increase the availability of broadband
wireless access networks [20]. The performance of a spatial
diversity scheme depends mainly on the physical separation
between the alternative paths. To achieve maximum reliability
during data transfer, a new metric, the path correlation coef-
ficient P CCk , is introduced to indicate the overall physical
separation between the paths. If sk is the surface defined by
the trajectories of paths k and  as they link the source node
S to the destination node D (see Fig.5), P CCk is defined by
P CCk = exp(−sk )
If two paths have a large physical separation, the respective
value of the P CC is close to zero. Therefore, a significant
attenuation difference exists between the two paths with low
P CC.
To take advantage of this geometrical metric, during rain
fading, each agent performs the following actions:
1) First, it selects a routing path k ∈ K at random.
2) For every  ∈ K,  = k, the relevant P CCk values are
evaluated. Given that MHWBNs comprise fixed nodes,
the PCC values may be evaluated a priori and stored at
the network nodes to reduce the computational load.
3) In the next path sampling period, to decide whether a
possible switching to a new strategy is required, the
path with the smallest P CCk is examined. If this path
exhibits a lower PER, the agent modifies its strategy
accordingly. Otherwise, the agent’s strategy k remains
unchanged.
4) The agent repeats Step 3 in the next path sampling
periods examining the paths with the second, third,
and so on, smaller P CC, until all alternative paths
available have been sampled without finding a strategy
outperforming the current one.
It is clear that the PCC based algorithm affects only the
sampling probability x of any path . However, from (13),
the eigenbalues nk do not depend on x . Hence, even after the
application of the PCC algorithm, the eigenvalues of matrix
Q remain the same, all having negative values, and Theorem
2 holds ensuring evolutionary stability.
B. Performance Evaluation
Valuable insight concerning the performance of the pro-
posed algorithm to accelerate convergence may be obtained by
implementing a physical channel tool known as the rain field.
Rain fields are stochastic models that capture the properties of
the rainfall rate R (in mm/h) over a specific area both in space
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1223
Fig. 5. Geometrical definition of the surface sk bounded by the trajectories
of the paths k and .
and time. How a rain field is generated lies outside the scope
of the present paper. Anyway, the physical and mathematical
basis of the model are well described in [21].
In Fig.6, a snapshot of such a rain field is superimposed
over the area of the MHWBN introduced in Fig.1. The next
step is the calculation of rain attenuation over each of the
alternative paths. To relate rainfall rate to rain attenuation, the
specific rain attenuation γR (in dB/km) [22] is integrated over
(20) the corresponding path lengths.
Referring again to Fig.6, paths 1, 3, 4 and 5 are strictly
dominated (see Theorem 1) by the performance of path 2, that
is, the population of agents following these strategies shrinks
to zero and all information is routed via the most reliable
path 2. Fig.7 demonstrates the convergence acceleration of the
routing protocol after the application of the PCC algorithm.
It is observed that the lower part of the 10-66GHz frequency
range benefits more when the routing layer is made aware of
this additional physical layer information.
V. C ONCLUDING R EMARKS
The release of the IEEE 802.16 WiMAX standard enables
the utilization of the 10-66GHz air interface as a wireless
backhaul network to aggregate Internet traffic from the access
points to the Internet backbone. As explained in the main body
of the paper, under rain conditions (on average about 5%-
8% of a typical year), routing is dictated by the performance
aggravation caused by rain fading and not by congestion. This
necessitates a cross-layer analysis where the routing algorithm
is directly related to the physical link parameters.
In the present work, because of the large number of players
with bounded rationality who learn about the network status
empirically, the concept of EGT is invoked, which seems to
reproduce the real situation concerning IP backhaul traffic
better than conventional game theory. The corresponding evo-
lution of population shares adopting a specific routing strategy
follows the replicator dynamics model.
Having proven that the proposed EGT based routing scheme
is unipath and evolutionary stable, the speed of convergence
is investigated. It is shown that convergence is accelerated if
more information from the physical layer is transfered to the
routing layer. In the particular routing problem under study,
convergence acceleration has been achieved by taking into
account the physical separation between the fixed paths of
the IEEE 802.16 MHWBN.
1224 IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 26, NO. 7, SEPTEMBER 2008

Fig. 6. Routing strategies under rain fading for the MHWBN of Fig.1. Snapshot of a rain field model.

To derive (11) and (12), the conditional probability φ(Ak −

A ) = Pr{Ak − A > 0|Ak > 0, A > 0}, which is a function
of two random variables Ak and A , is needed. To this end,
the joint bivariate lognormal distribution is employed, that is
 +∞  Ak
φ(Ak − A ) = dAk dA pAk A (Ak , A ) (22)
0 0

where
 
1 1
pAk A (Ak , A ) = exp − F (Ak , A )
2πSAk SA Ak A 2
(23)
is the joint bivariate lognormal pdf and

1 (ln Ak − ln mAk )2
F (Ak , A ) = 2 −
1 − ρ2n SA k
Fig. 7. Convergence acceleration of the proposed routing algorithm employ-
ing the PCC coefficient method. (ln Ak − ln mAk )(ln A − ln mA )
2ρn +
S Ak S A

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (ln A − ln mA )2
2 (24)
The authors would like to thank Prof. Athanasios V. SA 
Vasilakos for originally proposing the EGT based routing
approach. A key element of both the original and the improved PCC
routing algorithms is the cross-correlation ρn of rain atten-
uation between the available routing paths. This coefficient
A PPENDIX is obtained according to the methodology described in the
The majority of studies concerning atmospheric propagation Appendix of [24].
above 10GHz agree that rain attenuation A (in dB) and its
underlying physical process of rainfall rate R (in mm/h) are R EFERENCES
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Markos P. Anastasopoulos (S’08) was born in
Athens, Greece, on February 1982. He received the
Diploma degree in electrical and computer engi-
neering from the National Technical University of
Athens (NTUA), Zografou, Greece, in 2004 and the
M.Sc. in techno-economics in 2006. He is currently
working toward the Dr. Ing. degree at the same
university. From September 2005, he acted as a
technical consultant for the Spectrum Management
Division of the Hellenic Ministry of Transport and
Communication, where he was involved with the
coordination of the HELLAS-SAT satellite network series.
For his academic progress he has been awarded by the Kyprianides, Eu-
genides and Propondis foundations. His research interests include applications
of game theory in wireless networks, routing and resource allocation issues
for ad-hoc, sensor and satellite networks. Mr. Anastasopoulos is a student
member of the IEEE and of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE)
Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Houston. Downloaded on April 20, 2009 at 16:35 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1225
Pantelis-Daniel M. Arapoglou (S’04–M’07) was
born in Athens, Greece, on October, 1979. He re-
ceived the Diploma degree in electrical and com-
puter engineering and the Dr. Engineering degree
from the National Technical University of Athens
(NTUA), Greece, in 2003 and 2007, respectively.
From January 2004 until December 2005 he was a
Research Assistant at the School of Pedagogical and
Technological Education (ASPETE). From Septem-
ber 2005, he acted as a technical consultant for
the Spectrum Management Division of the Hellenic
Ministry of Transport and Communication, where he was involved with the
coordination of the HELLAS-SAT satellite network series. Since August 2007,
he serves his military duty in the Electronic Warfare Corps of the Hellenic
Army.
His research interests include physical and link layer issues for satellite
communication and fixed broadband wireless access networks. Dr. Arapoglou
is a member of the IEEE and of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE). In
2004 he received the ”Ericsson Award of Excellence in Telecommunications”
for his diploma thesis and in 2005 the URSI General Assembly Young
Scientist Award. He is also an active delegate of Greece in the Study Group
3 of the ITU-R.
Rajgopal Kannan obtained his B.Tech in Com-
puter Science and Engineering from IIT-Bombay
in 1991 and the Ph.D in Computer Science from
the University of Denver in 1996. He is currently
an Associate Professor in the Computer Science
department at Louisiana State University. His areas
of interest are in algorithmic aspects of wireless
sensor networks, game and information theory, data
security, interconnection networks, optical networks
and routing and multicasting protocols. He has
published extensively and won several best-paper
awards. He is an Associate Editor of IJAACS and has organized/co-organized
several conferences. His research work has been funded by agencies such as
NSF, DARPA, AFRL and DOE.
Panayotis G. Cottis was born in Thessaloniki,
Greece, in 1956. He received the Dipl. Ing. degree
in mechanical and electrical engineering and the Dr.
Eng. degree from the National Technical University
of Athens (NTUA), Zografou, Greece, in 1979 and
1984, respectively, and the M.Sc. degree from the
University of Manchester (UMIST), Manchester,
U.K., in 1980.
In 1986, he joined the School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, NTUA, where he is cur-
rently a Professor. From September 2003 to Septem-
ber 2006, he has been the Vice Rector of NTUA. He has published more than
120 papers in international journals and conference proceedings. His research
interests include microwave theory and applications, wave propagation in
anisotropic media, electromagnetic scattering, powerline and wireless and
satellite communications.