On the impact of power allocation on coalition formation in cooperative wireless networks

In this paper, the impact of cooperative power allocation on distributed altruistic coalition formation in cooperative relay networks is studied. Particularly, equal power allocation (EPA), maxmin rate (MMR) and sum-of-rates maximizing (SRM) power allocation criteria are considered. A distributed merge-and-split algorithm is proposed to allow network nodes to form coalitions and improve their total achievable rate. The proposed algorithm is compared with that of centralized power control and coalition formation, and is shown to yield a good tradeoff between network sum-rate and computational complexity. Finally, numerical results illustrate that the SRM power allocation criterion promotes altruistic coalition formation and results in the largest coalitions among the different power allocation criteria.