Resource Contention in Multiagent Systems

The dynamics of resource contention in multiagent sys- tems with imperfect information can be extremely com- plex, ranging from nonlinear oscillations to chaotic be- havior. It was shown by Hogg and Huberman that it is possible to stabilize such systems by allowing agents to follow different strategies. We now show that there is a wide range of possible strategies consistent with the ex- isting equilibrium. As time progresses, agents explore different strategy mixes, resulting in bursts of momen- tary instability. These bursts eventually relax into a stable equilibrium. This mechanism of stability punc- tuated by bursts of erratic activity appears to be quite general in systems where agents explore strategies in search of local improvements.