Energy efficient resource allocation in 5G hybrid heterogeneous networks: A game theoretic approach

Millimeter wave (mmWave) technology integrated with heterogeneous networks (HetNets) has emerged as a new wave to overcome the thirst for higher data rates and severe shortage of spectrum. In this paper, we consider the uplink of a hybrid HetNet with femtocells overlaid on a macrocell, and formulate a two layer game theoretic framework to maximise the energy efficiency (EE) while optimising the network resources. The outer layer allows each femtocell access point (FAP) to maximise the data rate of its users by selecting the frequency band either from the sub-6 GHz and the mmWave. The solution to this non-cooperative game can be obtained by using pure strategy Nash equilibrium. The inner layer ensures the energy efficient user association method subject to the minimum rate and maximum transmission power constraints by using dual decomposition approach. Simulation results show that the proposed hybrid HetNet scheme exploiting the mmWave frequency band improves the sum-rate and EE in comparison to the scenario where all the networks operate at sub-6 GHz frequency band. The performance can further be enhanced by incorporating the power control mechanism.