Payoff Optimization Through Wireless Network Virtualization for IoT Applications: A Three Layer Game Approach

Performance of wireless networks for Internet of Things (IoT) is suffering from exponential growth of lightweight hand-held and smart IoT devices as well as the data flow in the network. Static assignment of wireless resources is creating bottleneck to the further development of emerging applications, including IoT and cyber-physical systems. Wireless network virtualization through slicing of primary wireless resources is regarded as an emerging approach for enhancing overall network performance to solve the bottleneck problem for those emerging applications. In this paper, we study wireless virtualization where a three-layer game is formulated for wireless infrastructure providers (WIPs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), and IoT devices (or end users). In the proposed three-layer game, players play sequentially to find out their optimal strategies. With the help of a controller, WIPs divide and reconfigure their RF bands to sublease frequency slices to MVNOs based on their service-level-agreement. MVNOs let end users use their subleased frequency slices. For the game, we present a unique optimal solution that facilitates a tradeoff between quality of service of end users, payoffs of MVNOs and payoff of WIPs. We also present a necessary condition and closed form for the existence of an equilibrium in the game. Furthermore, performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using numerical results which show that the payoffs of WIPs and MVNOs are maximized while offering competitive price for the subleased RF spectrum for their users.