Price bargaining based on the Stackelberg game in two-tier orthogonal frequency division multiple access femtocell networks

Abstract

This study presents a solution to the interference management scheme and resource allocation strategy for the two-tier femtocell networks, where the femtocell users (FUEs) share the same frequency band with the existing macrocell users. It is assumed that the FUEs compete for the available spectrum to fulfil their own communication. And the macrocell base station protects itself by pricing the interference from the FUEs, which formulates the Stackelberg game. In this study, two effective pricing schemes, uniform pricing scheme and non-uniform pricing scheme, combining with admission control are proposed to maximise the revenues and protect the quality of service requirements. The Stackelberg equilibriums for the proposed games are investigated. Besides, a novel distributed interference pricing algorithm is provided for the uniform pricing case. Numerical results show that, in two-tier femtocell networks with shared spectrum, the proposed pricing schemes are effective in resource allocation and performance protection.