A Survey and Taxonomy of Resource Allocation Methods in Wireless Networks

Resource allocation is a fundamental and vital issue for arbitrary wireless networks, which can guarantee the network to run efficiently and stably. Especially, in the 5G and future 6G networks, numerous distinct wireless network service demands will be requested from various vertical industries. How to select the most suitable one from these countless methods accurately and efficiently is still a far unsolved problem. In this survey, we give a comprehensive review of the domain of resource allocation in wireless communication. The survey begins with an overview of the resource allocation problem in present wireless networks and related works about the review of resource allocation methods. We then give a novel unified framework by using a six-tuple model for existing resource allocation methods of wireless networks. According to this model, we categorize these methods into two main classifications, namely single decision maker and multiple decision maker resource allocation. Comprehensive discussion and representative research results about the above taxonomy are subsequently elaborated. Finally, the conclusion and some promising research opportunities are presented at the end of the survey paper.