A noncooperative game-theoretic vertical handoff in 4G heterogeneous wireless networks

Abstract

Proactive handoff is expected to be one of the distinct feature of 4G heterogeneous wireless systems, which is obviously different from the passive handoff commonly existed in traditional cellular systems. Users with multi-network interface terminals can actively and easily handoff to access network for better QoS satisfaction at a minimum expense, on the other hand, service providers (SPs) will have to face more intense competition for attracting more users to maximize their profits. In this paper, the relationship between competitive SPs and users is modeled as a noncooperative game, and the Nash equilibrium solutions corresponding to the best response price offered by SP are obtained. Based on the optimal prices, a novel vertical handoff algorithm for maximizing user performance-price-ratio is proposed. Numerical results demonstrate that all SPs can attain maximal profits from the Nash equilibrium results, and both of the network utilization efficiency and user QoS can be guaranteed.

Adaptive call admission control scheme for heterogeneous overlay networks

“…Recently, the schemes in [9] and [14] have been published; they introduced unique challenges for the call admission mechanism in the multi-layer network system. As mentioned earlier, we compare the performance of the proposed scheme with these existing schemes to confirm the superiority of the proposed approach.…”

“…Section II describes the proposed algorithms in detail. In Section III, performance evaluation results are presented along with comparisons with the NGBA and BAM schemes proposed in [9] and [14]. Through simulation, we show the ability of the proposed scheme to achieve a high level of accuracy and promptness in dynamic network environments.…”

“…The noncooperative game-theoretic bandwidth allocation (NGBA) scheme in [9] is a novel call control algorithm for maximizing the user performance-price ratio. In the NGBA scheme, the relationship between competitive service providers (SPs) and users is modeled as a non-cooperative game.…”

“…Another important part of network operations is the pricing strategy: Adaptive pricing strategies can maximize the network revenue. For this reason, the development of an effective call admission and price computation algorithms has been an active area of research over the last decade [1], [9], [10].…”