A novel relay selection game in cooperative wireless networks based on combinatorial optimization

Multi-standard mobile devices are allowing users to experience higher data rates and ubiquitous connectivity. These advances are achieved on the expense of higher energy consumption due to the multiple active wireless interfaces. In this paper, we use one advantage of the multiple interfaces, namely short range communications. Mobile terminals (MTs) form short range cooperative network to take advantage of the good channel quality of short range links to save energy of MTs. In this cooperative network, the energy of all MTs is treated as a pool of resources, which is available for all MTs in the network. Toward this end, we propose a combinatorial optimization game to identify the problem. We derive the core solution for the relay selection game in cooperative networks. A mathematical framework to compute the achieved energy saving is derived. Simulation results using the solution of the game show that energy saving can be achieved using short range cooperation in wireless networks. The results also show the effectiveness of the proposed node selection game.