Service provisioning with multiple service providers in 5G ultra-dense small cell networks

In this work, a game theoretical approach for addressing the virtual network service providers (NSPs), small cell provider (SCP) and user interaction in heterogenous small cell networks is presented. In particular, we consider the users can select the services of different NSPs based on their prices. The NSPs have no dedicated hardware and need to rent from the SCP in term of radio resources, e.g., small cell base stations (SBSs) in order to provide satisfied services to the users. Due to the fact that the selfish parties involved aim at maximizing their own profits, a hierarchical dynamic game framework is presented to address interactive decision problem. In the lower-level, a Stackelberg game is formulated to model and analyze the adaptive service selection of non-atomic users. In the upper-level, the NSPs and SCP sequentially determine the leasing and pricing strategies, respectively, by taking into account the service selection in the lower-level game. Performance evaluation shows the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed game theoretic approaches.