QoE-based distributed multichannel allocation in small-cell networks: A potential-matching game solution

Abstract

We investigate the problem of multichannel allocation in small-cell networks (SCNs) by taking the quality of experience (QoE) of users into account. In most existing channel allocation approaches, they are assumed that each user can only transmit on one channel and the optimization goal is the network throughput without considering users' demand. Moreover, the central controller is needed which is hard to achieve in SCNs. In this paper, we propose a joint potential-matching game to solve such a complicated multichannel allocation problem. According to the different interference and competition relationships among SUs, we divide the multichannel allocation problem into two subproblems, i.e., i) inter-cell channel allocation and ii) intra-cell channel redistribution. We formulate two subproblems as a potential game G1 and a many-to-one matching game G2 separately. With an appropriate design, the two subproblems can be solved based on the two proposed games distributedly and synchronously. Without central controllers, a improved best reply algorithm for the joint potential-matching game is proposed to find the NE point of G1 and the stable matching of G2 jointly. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves higher network satisfaction than the random allocation.