Game Theoretical Resource Allocation for Inter-BS Coexistence in IEEE 802.22

IEEE 802.22 is the first cognitive-radio-based wireless communication standard. To manage resource sharing, IEEE 802.22 designs an interbase station (inter-BS) coexistence mechanism enabling distributed competing BSs to coexist effectively. In this IEEE 802.22 mechanism, BSs could be considered as players optimizing their own performance in a self-organizing way. Therefore, it is suitable to apply game theory to model the convergence of self-organizing behaviors. An operating point where no BS can unilaterally increase its performance describes an outcome of the inter-BS coexistence mechanism; this steady-state operating point is the well-known Nash equilibrium in game theory. In this paper, an IEEE 802.22 inter-BS coexistence issue is investigated from a game-theoretical perspective. As the IEEE 802.22 standard defines the inter-BS coexistence mechanism, we design a resource-transaction algorithm to realize IEEE 802.22 dynamic resource renting and offering (DRRO) and adaptive on-demand channel contention (AODCC) operation. We also use game theory to model and analyze the proposed algorithm. In game analysis, we first study a two-player game through a graphical method to gain insights for the solution. Afterward, we investigate a general n-player game and derive the Nash equilibrium where the resource allocation is uniquely determined. The resource allocation is efficient, as the overall system performance is maximized (allocative efficiency), and no BS can further improve its performance without impairing others (Pareto optimality). The resource allocation also achieves max-min fairness and proportional fairness. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm ensures all resource acquirers´ participation without resource loss (individual rationality). It also guarantees revenue maximization of the resource provider.