Game Theory and Reinforcement Learning for Anti-jamming Defense in Wireless Communications: Current Research, Challenges, and Solutions

Due to the inherently open and shared nature of the wireless channels, wireless communication networks are vulnerable to jamming attacks, and effective anti-jamming measures are of utmost importance to realize reliable communications. Game theory and reinforcement learning (RL) are powerful mathematical tools in anti-jamming field. This article investigates the anti-jamming problem from the perspective of game theory and RL. First, different anti-jamming domains and anti-jamming strategies are discussed, and technological challenges are globally analyzed from different perspectives. Second, an in-depth systematic and comprehensive survey of each kind of anti-jamming solutions (i.e., game theory and RL) is presented. To be specific, some game models are discussed for game theory based solutions, including Bayesian anti-jamming game, Stackelberg anti-jamming game, stochastic anti-jamming game, zero-sum anti-jamming game, graphical/hypergraphical anti-jamming game, etc. For RL-based anti-jamming solutions, different kinds of RL are given, including Q-learning, multi-armed bandit, deep RL and transfer RL. Third, the strengths and limitations are analyzed for each type of anti-jamming solutions. Finally, we discuss the deep integration of the game theory and RL in solving anti-jamming problems, and a few future research directions are illustrated.