Game-Theoretic Approaches for Wireless Communications with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Wireless communications with UAVs offer a promising solution to provide cost-effective wireless connectivity and extend coverage. In recent years, the area of wireless communications for UAV system design and optimization has been receiving enormous attention from the research community. However, there are still existing challenges that are far from solved. To cope with those challenges, researchers have been exploring the applicability of game-theoretic approaches. This article surveys the existing game-theoretic solutions and presents a number of novel solutions that are designed to optimize energy consumption, enhance network coverage, and improve connectivity in wireless communications with UAVs. We first present main game components and the elements they represent in wireless communications with UAVs, and then we present a classification of the current used game-theoretic approaches. We identify the main problems in wireless communications with UAVs in which game theory has been used to find solutions. We provide a case study to show the merits of applying game theory in wireless communication with UAVs. Finally, we discuss the shortcomings of the traditional game-theoretic approaches and propose MFG as an appropriate method for solving novel technical problems in massive UAVs networks.