Communication-efficient Distributed Multi-resource Allocation
This work addresses the challenge of coordinating resource allocation in smart city applications with minimal communication, which is important for systems with communication or privacy constraints.
The paper proposes a distributed algorithm for multi-resource allocation that requires only a one-bit broadcast signal from a central unit, eliminating direct inter-agent communication. Empirical results show that average allocations converge to optimal allocations over time.
In several smart city applications, multiple resources must be allocated among competing agents that are coupled through such shared resources and are constrained --- either through limitations of communication infrastructure or privacy considerations. We propose a distributed algorithm to solve such distributed multi-resource allocation problems with no direct inter-agent communication. We do so by extending a recently introduced additive-increase multiplicative-decrease (AIMD) algorithm, which only uses very little communication between the system and agents. Namely, a control unit broadcasts a one-bit signal to agents whenever one of the allocated resources exceeds capacity. Agents then respond to this signal in a probabilistic manner. In the proposed algorithm, each agent makes decision of its resource demand locally and an agent is unaware of the resource allocation of other agents. In empirical results, we observe that the average allocations converge over time to optimal allocations.