A game-theoretic approach to spectrum sharing in multihop OFDMA networks

We address the problem of subcarrier sharing with discrete rate allocation in the downlink of multihop OFDMA networks. The co-channel interference makes the problem computationally intractable. We therefore model the problem as a non-cooperative game among the transmitting nodes with smaller scale problems. Each problem is solved using dual decomposition. Moreover, to mitigate the degradation effect of co-channel interference in this game, we additionally propose a price-based game. This game charges the transmitting nodes for their power on subcarriers. Numerical results demonstrate that price-based game outperforms the non-cooperative game as a result of distributed interference avoidance. In addition, these games with subcarrier sharing achieve higher sum-rate compared with resource allocation schemes with no subcarrier sharing.