Device-Aware Cell Association in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks: A Matching Game Approach

Abstract

Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) provide a promising paradigm for supporting different types of devices that have diverse quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as Internet of Things devices (IoTDs) and human-to-human devices (H2HDs). In this paper, a distributed cell association algorithm is developed to consider the dissimilar association requirements for IoTDs and H2HDs coexisting in HCNs. The device association process is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem to minimize the uplink (UL) transmit power for IoTDs and maximize the downlink (DL) data rate for H2HDs while considering the various devices’ QoS requirements. To solve this problem, an approach dependent on matching theory is proposed to model the interactions between devices and base stations in the network. Using this approach, a distributed algorithm is developed to provide the device association solution. The proposed algorithm is then proved to converge to a stable matching. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in improving the UL power performance for IoTDs as well as DL rate performance for H2HDs compared to other association algorithms.