Toward Efficient Network Resource Sharing: From One-Sided Market to Two-Sided Market

Resource sharing in wireless networks has been a hot topic for years. It mainly deals with two main goals: incentive mechanism design to motivate resource owners to contribute resources on the supply side of the market, and resource allocation to efficiently assign the obtained resources to end users on the demand side. Mos existing resource sharing is based on the one-sided model. However, one application of the two-sided model, sharing economy, is reshaping conventional business models with a substantial growth in both market size and profit. We see a great potential to increase profit and efficiency by adopting the two-sided market model in wireless networks, so as to bridge user demand and resource supply simultaneously from both sides of the network. However, as to wireless networks with typical network features, many problems cannot be tackled based upon existing models. In this work, we provide the basic concept of a two-sided market, together with the challenges and applications of using a two-sided market model to tackle the resource sharing problem in various kinds of networks. Potential methodologies to solve resource sharing problems in two-sided markets are also presented sequentially and compared. In the end, future directions for resource sharing under the two-sided market model are discussed.