A game theoretic approach for hierarchical caching resource sharing in 5G networks with virtualization

Caching and virtualization have been considered as the promising techniques in 5G Networks. In 5G networks with virtualization, the caching resources deployed by infrastructure providers (InPs) can be abstracted into isolated slices and transparently shared by mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). In this case, one of the most important issues is how the MVNOs to share the caching resource. To solve this issue, different from previous works, a hierarchical caching architecture that core network and radio access network (RAN) have the caching capability in 5G networks with virtualization is first considered in this paper. Then, we study the problem of hierarchical caching resource sharing for MVNOs, and a competitive game to maximize their expectation revenue based on the oligopoly market model is formulated. As it is a hard problem to find the optimal solution in the hierarchical caching resource sharing problem, we decompose the optimization problem into two independent caching resource sharing problems in RAN and core network, respectively. Then the local optimal solutions are solved and the global Nash equilibrium solution is achieved. Finally, simulation results are illustrated to demonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme.