Power Allocation in Multi-User Wireless Relay Networks through Bargaining

In this paper, we consider a multi-user single-relay wireless network, where the relay facilitates transmissions of the users' signals to the destination. We study the relay power allocation among the users, and use bargaining theory to model the negotiation among the users on relay power allocation. By assigning a bargaining power to each user to indicate its transmission priority, we propose an asymmetric Nash bargaining solution (NBS)-based relay power allocation scheme. We also propose a distributed implementation for this solution, where each user only requires its local channel state information (CSI). We analytically investigate the impact of the bargaining powers on the relay power allocation and show that via proper selection of the bargaining powers, the proposed power allocation can achieve a balance between the network sum-rate and the user fairness. Then we generalize the NBS-based power allocation and its distributed implementation to multi-user multi-relay networks. Simulation results are shown to compare the proposed power allocation with sum-rate-optimal power allocation and even power allocation. The impact of the bargaining powers on the power allocation is also demonstrated via simulations.