Joint head selection and airtime allocation for data dissemination in mobile social networks

Abstract

By forming a temporary group, users in mobile social networks (MSNs) can disseminate data to others in proximity with short-range communication technologies. However, due to user mobility, airtime available for users in the same group to disseminate data is limited. In addition, for practical consideration, a star network topology among users in the group is expected. For the former, unfair airtime allocation among the users will undermine their willingness to participate in MSNs. For the latter, a group head is required to connect other users. These two problems have to be properly addressed to enable real implementation and adoption of MSNs. To this aim, we propose a joint head selection and airtime allocation scheme for data dissemination within the group using Nash bargaining theory. Specifically, we consider two cases in terms of user preference on the data to be disseminated: a homogeneous case and a heterogeneous case. For each case, a Nash bargaining solution (NBS) based optimization problem is proposed. The existence of optimal solutions to the optimization problems is proved, which guarantees Pareto optimality and proportional fairness. Next, an algorithm that allows distributed implementation is introduced. Finally, numerical results are presented to evaluate the performance, validate intuitions and derive insights of the proposed scheme.