Service provider competition and cooperation in cloud-based software defined wireless networks

Software-defined wireless networking (SDWN) is an emerging paradigm in the era of the Internet of Things. In cloud-based SDWNs, resource management is seperated from the geo-distributed cloud, forming a virtual network topology in the control plane. Thus, a centralized software program is able to control and program the behavior of the entire network. In this article, we focus on resource management in cloud-based SDWNs, and discuss the competition and cooperation between cloud service providers. We present a Nash bargaining game approach to process the resource trading activity among cloud service providers in cloud-based SDWNs. Utility functions have been specifically considered to incorporate operation cost and resource utilization. Illustrative results indicate that cooperation is able to generate more benefits than competition. Moreover, resource sharing among cloud service providers has great significance in efficiently utilizing limited resources and improving quality of service.