Resource allocation scheme for orthogonal frequency division multiple access networks based on cooperative game theory

Cooperative game theory can be applied to orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) networks for fair resource allocation. In this work, we consider a comprehensive cross‐layer framework including physical and medium access control layer requirements. We apply two cooperative games, nontransferable utility (NTU) game and transferable utility (TU) game, to provide fairness in OFDMA networks. In NTU game, fairness is achieved by defining appropriate objective function, whereas in TU game, fairness is provided by forming the appropriate network structure. For NTU game, we analyze the Nash bargaining solution as a solution of NTU game taking into account channel state information and queue state information. In a TU game, we show that coalition among subcarriers to jointly provide rate requirements leads to better performance in terms of power consumption. The subcarrier's payoff is determined according to the amount of payoff which that subcarrier brings to the coalition by its participation. We show that although NTU and TU games are modeled as rate adaptive and margin adaptive problems, respectively, both solutions provide a fair distribution of resources with minimum fairness index of 0.8. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.