Resource Allocation for Device-to-Device Communications Underlaying Heterogeneous Cellular Networks Using Coalitional Games

Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) with millimeter wave (mmWave) communications included are emerging as a promising candidate for the fifth generation mobile network. With highly directional antenna arrays, mmWave links are able to provide several-Gbps transmission rate. However, mmWave links are easily blocked without line of sight. On the other hand, D2D communications have been proposed to support many content based applications, and need to share resources with users in HCNs to improve spectral reuse and enhance system capacity. Consequently, an efficient resource allocation scheme for D2D pairs among both mmWave and the cellular carrier band is needed. In this paper, we first formulate the problem of the resource allocation among mmWave and the cellular band for multiple D2D pairs from the view point of game theory. Then, with the characteristics of cellular and mmWave communications considered, we propose a coalition formation game to maximize the system sum rate in statistical average sense. We also theoretically prove that our proposed game converges to a Nash-stable equilibrium and further reaches the near-optimal solution with fast convergence rate. Through extensive simulations under various system parameters, we demonstrate the superior performance of our scheme in terms of the system sum rate compared with several other practical schemes.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Coalitional Games with Overlapping Coalitions for Interference Management in Small Cell Networks

In this paper, we study the problem of cooperative interference management in an OFDMA two-tier small cell network. In particular, we propose a novel approach for allowing the small cells to cooperate, so as to optimize their sum-rate, while cooperatively satisfying their maximum transmit power constraints. Unlike existing work which assumes that only disjoint groups of cooperative small cells can emerge, we formulate the small cells' cooperation problem as a coalition formation game with overlapping coalitions. In this game, each small cell base station can choose to participate in one or more cooperative groups (or coalitions) simultaneously, so as to optimize the tradeoff between the benefits and costs associated with cooperation. We study the properties of the proposed overlapping coalition formation game and we show that it exhibits negative externalities due to interference. Then, we propose a novel decentralized algorithm that allows the small cell base stations to interact and self-organize into a stable overlapping coalitional structure. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm results in a notable performance advantage in terms of the total system sum-rate, relative to the noncooperative case and the classical algorithms for coalitional games with non-overlapping coalitions

Resource Allocation for Device-to-Device Communications in Multi-Cell Multi-Band Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) with millimeter wave (mm-wave) communications are considered as a promising technology for the fifth generation mobile networks. Mm-wave has the potential to provide multiple gigabit data rate due to the broad spectrum. Unfortunately, additional free space path loss is also caused by the high carrier frequency. On the other hand, mm-wave signals are sensitive to obstacles and more vulnerable to blocking effects. To address this issue, highly directional narrow beams are utilized in mm-wave networks. Additionally, device-to-device (D2D) users make full use of their proximity and share uplink spectrum resources in HCNs to increase the spectrum efficiency and network capacity. Towards the caused complex interferences, the combination of D2D-enabled HCNs with small cells densely deployed and mm-wave communications poses a big challenge to the resource allocation problems. In this paper, we formulate the optimization problem of D2D communication spectrum resource allocation among multiple micro-wave bands and multiple mm-wave bands in HCNs. Then, considering the totally different propagation conditions on the two bands, a heuristic algorithm is proposed to maximize the system transmission rate and approximate the solutions with sufficient accuracies. Compared with other practical schemes, we carry out extensive simulations with different system parameters, and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed scheme. In addition, the optimality and complexity are simulated to further verify effectiveness and efficiency.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog

Review on Radio Resource Allocation Optimization in LTE/LTE-Advanced using Game Theory

Recently, there has been a growing trend toward ap-plying game theory (GT) to various engineering fields in order to solve optimization problems with different competing entities/con-tributors/players. Researches in the fourth generation (4G) wireless network field also exploited this advanced theory to overcome long term evolution (LTE) challenges such as resource allocation, which is one of the most important research topics. In fact, an efficient de-sign of resource allocation schemes is the key to higher performance. However, the standard does not specify the optimization approach to execute the radio resource management and therefore it was left open for studies. This paper presents a survey of the existing game theory based solution for 4G-LTE radio resource allocation problem and its optimization