Utility-based resource allocation in heterogeneous wireless environments using game theory

The emergence and development of multi-homing/ multi-interface technologies may cause the unbalanced and inefficient use of the networking resources in different wireless access networks. In this paper, we introduce a uniform utility framework and use game theory to maximize the resource utilization of the whole heterogeneous wireless network system. Through the utility framework, the adaptable capability of elastic applications can be used fully to improve the whole network's efficiency. Based on this, a cooperative game is formulated to allocate resources among different applications. By obtaining the Pareto optimality of the game both the resource utilization of the entire networks can be improved and the performance of the applications can be maintained to a certain degree. In addition, mapping the optimal resource allocation into the practical contention window size of IEEE 802.11e is also given is an example of realizing the proposed resource allocation mechanism. Simulation and analytical results show that the proposed mechanism is effective and can improve the resource utilization of the whole networks.