Resource Allocation for Multicell Device-to-Device Communications Underlaying 5G Networks: A Game-Theoretic Mechanism With Incomplete Information

Resource allocation plays a critical role in mitigating interference for device-to-device (D2D) communications underlaying 5G networks. Although this issue has been explored by various game-theory-based approaches, most of the prior studies focus only on the single-cell scenario, and in the few existing multicell studies, they implicitly assume that each player has complete information on transmission parameters of other players. In this paper, we investigate the resource allocation problem, where the D2D links utilize common resources of multiple cells and each player's transmission parameter (information) is unknown to other players. To address the problem, a new game-theoretic mechanism is proposed. Specifically, we first present a static game model, and then extend it to a repeated one. Based on this repeated model, we propose a resource allocation protocol according to interactions among base stations and devices. We also thoroughly analyze the proposed mechanism by showing its optimality and by deriving a sufficient condition for its stability. Extensive simulation results demonstrate an interesting insight: The utility and sum rate of each player under the incomplete information condition are higher than the counterparts under the complete information condition, which implies that each player has an incentive to conceal its information to improve its profits.