5,820 research outputs found
Co-primary inter-operator spectrum sharing over a limited spectrum pool using repeated games
We consider two small cell operators deployed in the same geographical area,
sharing spectrum resources from a common pool. A method is investigated to
coordinate the utilization of the spectrum pool without monetary transactions
and without revealing operator-specific information to other parties. For this,
we construct a protocol based on asking and receiving spectrum usage favors by
the operators, and keeping a book of the favors. A spectrum usage favor is
exchanged between the operators if one is asking for a permission to use some
of the resources from the pool on an exclusive basis, and the other is willing
to accept that. As a result, the proposed method does not force an operator to
take action. An operator with a high load may take spectrum usage favors from
an operator that has few users to serve, and it is likely to return these
favors in the future to show a cooperative spirit and maintain reciprocity. We
formulate the interactions between the operators as a repeated game and
determine rules to decide whether to ask or grant a favor at each stage game.
We illustrate that under frequent network load variations, which are expected
to be prominent in small cell deployments, both operators can attain higher
user rates as compared to the case of no coordination of the resource
utilization.Comment: To be published in proceedings of IEEE International Conference on
Communications (ICC) at London, Jun. 201
Game-theoretic Resource Allocation Methods for Device-to-Device (D2D) Communication
Device-to-device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular networks allows
mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to use the licensed spectrum
allocated to cellular services for direct peer-to-peer transmission. D2D
communication can use either one-hop transmission (i.e., in D2D direct
communication) or multi-hop cluster-based transmission (i.e., in D2D local area
networks). The D2D devices can compete or cooperate with each other to reuse
the radio resources in D2D networks. Therefore, resource allocation and access
for D2D communication can be treated as games. The theories behind these games
provide a variety of mathematical tools to effectively model and analyze the
individual or group behaviors of D2D users. In addition, game models can
provide distributed solutions to the resource allocation problems for D2D
communication. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the applications of
game-theoretic models to study the radio resource allocation issues in D2D
communication. The article also outlines several key open research directions.Comment: Accepted. IEEE Wireless Comms Mag. 201
Sharing of Unlicensed Spectrum by Strategic Operators
Facing the challenge of meeting ever-increasing demand for wireless data, the
industry is striving to exploit large swaths of spectrum which anyone can use
for free without having to obtain a license. Major standards bodies are
currently considering a proposal to retool and deploy Long Term Evolution (LTE)
technologies in unlicensed bands below 6 GHz. This paper studies the
fundamental questions of whether and how the unlicensed spectrum can be shared
by intrinsically strategic operators without suffering from the tragedy of the
commons. A class of general utility functions is considered. The spectrum
sharing problem is formulated as a repeated game over a sequence of time slots.
It is first shown that a simple static sharing scheme allows a given set of
operators to reach a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium for mutually beneficial
sharing. The question of how many operators will choose to enter the market is
also addressed by studying an entry game. A sharing scheme which allows dynamic
spectrum borrowing and lending between operators is then proposed to address
time-varying traffic and proved to achieve perfect Bayesian equilibrium.
Numerical results show that the proposed dynamic sharing scheme outperforms
static sharing, which in turn achieves much higher revenue than uncoordinated
full-spectrum sharing. Implications of the results to the standardization and
deployment of LTE in unlicensed bands (LTE-U) are also discussed.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications,
Special Issue on Game Theory for Network
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