VCG-Based Time-Slot Auctioning in IEEE 802.16 OFDM/TDMA Wireless Mesh Networks

In this paper, we study the problem of bandwidth resource allocation in a non-cooperative IEEE 802.16 OFDM/TDMA based wireless mesh network, and propose an auction based framework in which the gateway, equipped with the precious high speed Internet connection, serves as the auctioneer while the first-level mesh routers (MRs) (i.e., those with direct wireless connections to the gateway) act as bidders competing resources among each other. We then present Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) based auction approaches to allocate time-slots among MRs. Through simulations, we find that the proposed VCG algorithms can achieve much better throughput and connection blocking probability performance than traditional resource allocation approaches in a non-cooperative environment.