Game theory based multi-tier spectrum sharing for LTE-A heterogeneous networks

This paper develops a novel scheme of game theory based spectrum sharing to mitigate the inter-cell interference in LTE-A heterogeneous networks (HetNets). In particular, we first assume that the macro-cell protects itself by pricing the bandwidth allocated to small-cells. We then employ the Stackelberg game to jointly consider the utility maximization of macro-cell and small-cells. During game formulation, our scheme takes the advantage of LTE-A standards, such as almost blank sub-frames (ABS) for enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) and cell range expansion (CRE) for small cell. Simulation results justify that our approach can significantly improve the throughput of multi-tier cellular network as well as leverage the spectral efficiency of the macro-users in the vicinity of small-cells.