A game theory based power control algorithm for future MTC NOMA networks

In this paper, we propose a power control algorithm dedicated for machine type communications (MTC) in future non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks employing game theory. In MTC networks, communication reliability should be considered prior to power consumption or energy efficiency. Once the reliability is satisfied, discussions about power consumption makes sense. We build a cost function for each device based on a non-cooperative game model. The cost function reflects the power consumption as well as received signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of each device. Since we assume the devices are battery-driven, the objective is to minimize the power consumption as much as possible provided that the received SINR of each device is kept beyond an acceptable level so that the reliability can be guaranteed. We derive the power control algorithm function and prove the convergence of this iteration algorithm and the unique existence of Nash equilibrium as well. The simulation results show that under the same constraints of maximum power consumption and minimum acceptable SINR, the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional algorithms in terms of power consumption and power efficiency.