Mobile data offloading in FiWi enhanced LTE-A heterogeneous networks

This paper proposes to empower capacity- and coverage-centric fiber-wireless (FiWi) enhanced 4G Long-Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) heterogeneous networks (HetNets) with computation- and storage-centric mobile cloud computing to cope with the unprecedented growth of mobile data traffic. Minimizing energy consumption and maximizing revenue while offloading mobile data in such highly converged and hierarchical networks is not trivial, where multiple players (i.e., cloud service providers, macrocell and small cells, users) with multiple objectives coexist. This paper proposes a mobile data offloading framework using a noncooperative multi-level game-theoretic approach from an end-to-end perspective in the envisioned network. More specifically, we design three-level Stackelberg games, in which a single-leader multi-follower game, a multi-leader multi-follower game, and a single-leader multi-follower game are modeled in the introduced network such that individual players selfishly optimize their local payoff functions and collectively solve the large complex network-wide optimization problem. Further, we develop distributed mobile data offloading algorithms to reduce the complexity of the hierarchical games and to achieve a unique Nash equilibrium condition in each subgame. Simulation results show that by reaching the Nash equilibrium condition, the proposed solution helps minimize energy consumption, interference price, and processing cost, while maximizing revenues of the players in the envisioned network. In addition, the efficiency of the equilibria in terms of price of anarchy and price of stability is quantified for the best/worst case of the Nash equilibrium.