A Novel Bargaining Based Relay Selection and Power Allocation Scheme for Distributed Cooperative Communication Networks

Distributed and efficient relay selection and resource allocation are critical for large scale cooperative communication networks. To stimulate a potential relay station to cooperate with the source, a bargaining based relay selection and power allocation (BBRSPA) scheme is proposed. In this paper, Rubinstein-Stahl bargaining game is introduced to provide a possible solution to share the increased benefits, which are obtained at a source when a potential relay joins to help transmit its signals. In this scheme, both a source and a relay calculate the patience factor according to the change in its own service utility. By exchanging the patience factor, a source selects the relay which can provide the maximal extra utility for itself, the corresponding optimal power the chosen relay should allocate is also determined. Furthermore, if the chosen relay could get more utilities from cooperation, it will have incentive to do so. Moreover, the simulation results show the strength of our proposed scheme and prove that our BBRSPA scheme can achieve comparable performance to that employing centralized scheme.