Hierarchical Multi-Service Resource Allocation Scheme for Future Wireless Network Virtualization

Future network is envisioned to be a multi-service network which can support more than one distinct communications service type over the same physical infrastructure. As a potential game changer, wireless network virtualization (WNV) allows the coexistence of multiple network slices over a shared physical platform. One key advantage of WNV is to effectively support multiple traffic types in a multi-service network. In this paper, we propose a novel resource allocation scheme for future wireless networks. Our proposed scheme is formulated as a joint control paradigm, which consists of upper and lower control stages. In the upper control stage, the ideas of Kalai and Smorodinsky bargaining solution (KSBS) and Banzhaf value (BV) are combined to allocate the resource to virtual networks. In the lower control stage, each virtual network operator distributes its assigned resource into corresponding mobile devices based on the multi-criteria bargaining solution, which combines the Nash bargaining solution (NBS) and KSBS to optimize the overall performance subject to different service requirements. To effectively share the limited physical resource, each stage control mechanism works together in an interactive manner. The main novelty of our approach is to reach a reciprocal consensus among competitive network agents. Through system simulations, numerical results show the superiority of our proposed control approach. Especially, the proposed scheme increases the system throughput, device payoff, and fairness by about 10%, 10% and 15%, respectively, in comparison with existing state-of-the-art WNV protocols. Finally, we highlight interesting research challenges and point out potential directions to spur further research in this promising research area.