Two-Stage Rate Allocation Game in Wireless Access Networks With PON Backhaul

To support the increasing demand for the mobile broadband service by a massive number of users, the 5G communication standard facilitates the convergence of wireless access networks with backhauling supported by the passive optical network. A key challenge of this type of converged network architecture is the distribution of bandwidth or data rate from the central office to the different mobile operators providing wireless broadband services at access networks and then to the end users. This letter investigates the application of a novel pricing-based rate allocation scheme using two-stage Stackelberg competition on an optical-wireless hybrid network architecture considering the users' satisfaction level and pricing affordability. Numerical calculations have been carried out for one specific network scenario to study the data-rate distribution and the behavior of utilities of different network entities with the variation of different parameters.