Coordination Multipoint Enabled Small Cells for Coalition-Game-Based Radio Resource Management

Fifth-generation networks are becoming a reality, and radio access network architectures are being redefined and rebuilt to accommodate the emerging specifications and demands. The future radio access networks need to incorporate in their architectural design smooth reconfigurability and high flexibility without compromising the throughput and the perceived quality of the new services and traffic types that future networks introduce. Such densely distributed access networks suffer the effect of inter-cell interference. Robust and intelligent coordination of multiple access networks is required in order to minimize the effect of interference and maximize users' gains. Coordinated multipoint operation is already considered as a promising technique for satisfying the challenges of the spectrum and interference management, especially for users at the edge of the cell coverage area. To increase the benefits of coordination multipoint technology in optimizing service quality in dense small cell networks, this study proposes the adaptation of game theory, which will optimize the formation of cooperated base station clusters. The system-level simulations performed indicate that there is a significant increase in the throughput of users located at the edge of cells, without compromising the quality of service experienced by the rest of the users, thus rendering it a suitable candidate for the emerging next-generation networks.