We investigate issues of complexity related to welfare maximization in congestion games. In particular, we provide a full classification of complexity results for the problem of finding a minimum cost solution to a congestion game, under the model of Rosenthal. We consider both network and general congestion games, and we examine several variants of the problem concerning the structure of the g...

This paper examines the storage application and its optimal placement for the social cost and transmission congestion relief of wind integration. Probability density functions (PDFs) are used to characterize the uncertainties of wind speed and load. A probabilistic optimal power flow (POPF) is developed using two-point estimation which incorporates the storage system either as a variable load o...

Hospital congestion and the many associated healthcare delivery cost and quality issues are caused or exacerbated by decisions made without understanding system-level patient flow. Without patient flow models, decisions that affect the entire system are made considering only the effect on a small subsection of the system. This paper presents a flexible simulation framework as a powerful tool fo...

The study presents an empirical analysis of best practice production and cost frontiers for a sample of 94 acute care hospitals by applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a regression model, in a two-stage approach. This paper contributes to the DEA and efficiency measurement literatures by adding results from a homogeneous method of partitioning cost efficiency into its allocative (or pri...

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) has the ability of dynamic self-organization, self-configuration and selfhealing. These features facilitate quick deployment, easy maintenance, low cost and high scalability. These also provide cost effective solutions for internet facilities which has led to their popularity. There is an access of shared medium by all the existing nodes in the network. It may lead...

We consider the price of stability for Nash and correlated equilibria of linear congestion games. The price of stability is the optimistic price of anarchy, the ratio of the cost of the best Nash or correlated equilibrium over the social optimum. We show that for the sum social cost, which corresponds to the average cost of the players, every linear congestion game has Nash and correlated price...

We study the inefficiency of equilibria for several classes of games when players are (partially) altruistic. We model altruistic behavior by assuming that player i’s perceived cost is a convex combination of 1−αi times his direct cost and αi times the social cost. Tuning the parameters αi allows smooth interpolation between purely selfish and purely altruistic behavior. Within this framework, ...

In this thesis we examine four network flow problems arising in the study of transportation, communication, and water networks. The first of these problems is the Integer Equal Flow problem, a network flow variant in which some arcs are restricted to carry equal amounts of flow. Our main contribution is that this problem is not approximable within a factor of 2n(1− , for any fixed > 0, where n ...

Congestion management is a task performed by Independent System Operator (ISO) to ensure the operation of transmission system within limits. In an emerging electric power market, congestion management is highly important and inefficient management can be a barrier to electricity trading. To minimize congestion, it is required to maximize transmission line generation and decrease its cost. A Hyb...

Computer networks have long suffered from congestion. Congestion occurs when an increase in the offered load results in a decrease in the effective throughput of the network. The basic cause is that the short term packet arrival rate at some gateway exceeds its service rate. Existing congestion control schemes treat congestion as an individual problem and propose ad hoc solution that are dissat...