A Strategy-Proof Auction Mechanism for Adaptive-Width Channel Allocation in Wireless Networks

Abstract

Efficient wireless channel allocation is becoming a more and more important topic in wireless networking. Dynamic channel allocation is believed to be an effective way to cope with the shortage of wireless channel resource. Up to now, a number of auction mechanisms have been designed to solve the problem of dynamic channel redistribution. Such designs deal with either the problem of single channel allocation or the problem of multiple channels allocation with an assumption of the same per-channel valuation. However, considering the recent outcomes of researches on throughputs of adaptive-width channels and the needs of wireless users in practice, we need to provide buyers with a way to submit various combinatorial bids for channels. This motivates our work on designing a more practical auction mechanism to solve the problem of channel redistribution. In this paper, we propose SPECIAL, which is a Strategy-Proof and EffiCIent multi-channel Auction mechanism for wireLess networks. SPECIAL guarantees the strategy proofness of the channel auction, exploits wireless channels’ spatial reusability, and achieves high channel allocation efficiency. Numerical results demonstrate that SPECIAL prevents buyers from manipulating the auction, and achieves high performance.