Terminal Cooperation using Game Theory for Energy Efficiency in Radio Access Networks: A Simulation Based Performance Analaysis

Energy efficiency of radio access communication systems is an important aspect of the 5G communication framework as defined in the IMT2020 specifications. In this paper we study game theoretic approaches for minimizing the energy consumption of radio access networks using terminal cooperation. The strategies for energy efficient transmissions through relay based communications (terminals cooperating with each other) is presented and compared against a centralized approach. Simulations are conducted to show the performance variations in the energy efficiency of the considered strategies.