Efficient resource optimization for heterogeneous smart-building networks

Smart meters aided by wireless communications have been widely used to collect the information of the electrical appliances. In this paper, we consider a two-layer heterogeneous smart building network, consisting of a number of cluster-organized smart meters, and a base station (BS). The communication takes two phase: 1) periodical data collection via cluster heads in the first layer, and 2) data transmission from the cluster heads to the BS in the second layer. But, due to the irregular topology of smart meter networks and various types of data traffic of electrical appliances, the data aggregation to the heads and associated spectrum allocation become quite challenging. To solve these problems, we first analyze the relationship between the system performance and the cost of network construction. By using coalition formation game theory, we propose a practical strategy in optimizing channel allocation and cluster-heads deployment. The proposed algorithms are verified through computer simulations.