Stackelberg Game and Restless Bandits Problem for Towards Uplink Macrocell and Femtocell Cooperation

In this paper, we consider the cooperation among users in heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets). Some users in HetNets will play a role as the relays for a macro user when the macro user cannot connect to the macro base stations or femto base stations directly. In this scenario, the macro user tries to find a best relay user in a set of candidate relays to maximize its utility function. In return, each relay user gives a pricing-based strategy to the macro user to maximize the relay user˅s utility function. This problem is formulated as a Stackelberg game in static environment. Moreover, with stochastic environment we model as a restless bandit problem to maximize the utility functions of the relay users and the macro user in a long-term. Simulation results illustrate the efficiency of our proposal. I