Distributed hedonic coalition formation for dynamic network selection of multiple services.

One of the most important features of the evolving next generation wireless networks is heterogeneity. In this paper, we take a coalitional perspective on network users and Services Providers (SPs) in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks (HWN) and propose a dynamic network selection scheme for multiple services through a hedonic coalition formation game approach. Under this scheme, active users request different services from SPs, then the users can self-organize into an ultimate coalition structure within SPs through a distributed hedonic shift algorithm, whereby the target network depends on the SP to which the users in coalition are combined. Simulation results show the proposed selection scheme can enhance the aggregate payoffs and the maximum accommodated number of calls, in comparison with the received signal strength-based selection scheme (RSNS). Also, our scheme can inherently adapt to dynamic environmental changes in HWN. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]