An Auction-Based Approach for Hybrid Access in Macro-Femto Networks

Abstract

Femtocells have been identified as promising means to provide better coverage and improved user Quality of Service (QoS) with low power and cost. Hybrid access is regarded as the most appropriate access control policy for macro-femto networks. Nevertheless, wide adoption of hybrid access is hindered by a lack of incentives for the private femtocell owners to share their resources with nonsubscribers. In this paper, we propose an auction-based approach to promote hybrid access in macro-femto networks. We use a forward multi-object auction with package bidding to determine the access point of macro users. The wireless service provider sells packages of macro users to the femtocell owners which are preferred by macro users. Simulation results demonstrate that by introducing hybrid access auction, the throughput of macro users can be substantially improved. In the meantime, the system energy efficiency can also be improved in the sense that the same system throughput can be achieved with lower power consumption.