A new cooperative dual-level game approach for operator-controlled multihop D2D communications

Abstract

With the development of wireless communications and the intellectualization of mobile devices, device-to-device (D2D) communications are considered as a standard part of future 5G networks. This new paradigm can provide better user experiences while improving the system performance such as network throughput, latency, fairness, and energy efficiency. In this study, we investigate a new dual-level D2D communication scheme consisting of multiple D2D operators and a group of mobile devices. To model the interaction among D2D operators and devices, we adopt two cooperative game approaches based on the incentive mechanism design and r-egalitarian Shapley value. At the upper level, routing paths and incentive payments for multihop relay services are decided using the incentive mechanism. At the lower level, mobile devices share the given incentive based on the r-egalitarian Shapley value. Both level control procedures are mutually dependent on each other by the proper coordination and collaboration. According to the main features of two cooperative game models, the proposed scheme takes various benefits in a fair-efficient way. Through the derived simulation results, we can verify the superiority of our proposed scheme comparing to the existing protocols. Finally, we propose further challenges and future opportunities in the research area of operator-controlled multihop D2D communications.