A game approach for cell selection and resource allocation in heterogeneous wireless networks

Cell selection and resource allocation (CS-RA) are processes of determining cell and radio resource which provide service to mobile station (MS). Optimizing these processes is an important step towards maximizing the utilization of current and future networks. In this paper, we investigate the problem of CS-RA in heterogeneous wireless networks. Specifically, we propose a distributed cell selection and resource allocation mechanism, in which the CS-RA processes are performed by MSs independently. We formulate the problem as a two-tier game named as inter-cell game and intra-cell game, respectively. In the first tier, i.e. the inter-cell game, MSs select the best cell according to an optimal cell selection strategy derived from the expected payoff. In the second tier, i.e., the intra-cell game, MSs choose the proper radio resource in the serving cell to achieve maximum payoff. We analyze the existence of Nash equilibria of both games, the structure of which suggests the interesting property that we can achieve automatic load balance through the two-tier games. Furthermore, we propose distributed algorithms named as CS-Algorithm and RA-Algorithm to enable the independent MSs converge to Nash equilibria. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms converge effectively to Nash equilibria and that the proposed CS-RA mechanism achieves better performance in terms of throughput and payoff compared to conventional mechanisms.