Abstract
Mobile data offloading is an emerging technology to alleviate cellular network congestion and improve user service quality. In this paper, we investigate the economics of mobile data offloading through access points (APs) deployed by small cell service providers (SSPs), implementing uniform volume prices for all the mobile users (MUs) in each SSP's coverage including the overlapping area. In particular, we consider a data offloading game with a single mobile network operator (MNO) and two SSPs with overlapping coverage areas, where each SSP announces a uniform price for offloading the cellular traffic within its coverage, and the MNO determines the traffic volumes to offload. We show that there is no pure Nash equilibrium (PNE) in the data offloading game, and prove the existence of the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium (MNE) by price randomization. Furthermore, we propose a simple one shot auction mechanism that is easy to implement and has PNEs which yield SSPs the same equilibrium payoffs compared to the expected payoffs obtained at the above MNE.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
