Maziar Nekovee -- Abstract

The El Farol bar problem on complex networks

El Farol is a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The bar is popular but becomes overcrowded when more than 60 people attend at any given evening. Everyone enjoys himself/herself when fewer than 60 people go, but no one has a good time when the bar is overcrowded. Each customer decides independently whether or not to go to the bar, based on his/her knowledge of previous bar attendance and a finite set of strategies. This scenario, originally proposed by the economist Brian Arthur, provides a simplified mathematical model of a class of congestion and coordination problems that arise in modern ICT systems. In this talk I shall review previous mathematical solutions and recent extension to the El Farol bar problem on networks, and discuss possible applications to the emerging field of cognitive radio networks.


Page modified Mar 2006 by Richard G. Clegg