Matching Game-Based Cell Association in Multi-RAT HetNet Considering Device Requirements

Multiple radio access technologies heterogeneous network (multi-RAT HetNet) composed by cellular and WiFi cell base stations (BSs) is considered a promising paradigm for meeting the high traffic demand on mobile networks. In this article, a new cell association algorithm for different wireless devices (WDs) having diverse requirements in multi-RAT HetNet is proposed. The algorithm is designed to consider the WDs’ uplink power consumptions and downlink achieved data rate while taking into account the proportional fairness among them. For this, the WDs association process is formulated as an optimization problem to maximize the WDs downlink achieved data rates considering proportional fairness, and to minimize their uplink transmitted power consumption. To solve this problem, a matching game-based association algorithm is proposed, where WDs are matched to their best cell BS according to well-designed utility functions that consider the rate and power requirements of each WD. Simulation results and performance analysis show that our proposed association strategy outperforms comparable strategies in terms of system throughput, WDs transmit power consumption, and fairness with significant gains.