Cost Allocation and Strategyproof Mechanism for Cover-set Games

In this paper, we discuss several cost-sharing methods for cover-set games, for example, approximately budget-balanced, in the core, and/or strategyproof. Different from the traditional set cover game, in cover-set game, the elements stand for services, and each agent is both a service provider and receiver. In this study, for unselfish agents, we design a cost allocation method that can recover no less than [Formula: see text] fraction of the total cost, where [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] is the maximum number of receiving services among all agents. In addition, for agents who are selfish service providers with privately known valuations, we present a strategyproof charging mechanism, further, the total cost is no more than [Formula: see text] times that of an optimal solution.