A Commercial Video-Caching System for Small-Cell Cellular Networks Using Game Theory

Abstract

Evidence indicates that requesting video clips on demand accounts for a dramatic increase in data traffic over cellular networks. Caching part of popular videos in the storage of small-cell base stations (SBS) in cellular networks is an efficient method to reduce transmission latency and mitigate redundant transmissions. In this paper, we propose a commercial caching system consisting of a video retailer (VR) and multiple network service providers (NSPs). Each NSP leases its SBSs, with some price, to the VR for the purpose of making profits, and the VR, after storing popular videos in the rented SBSs, can provide better local video services to the mobile users, thereby gaining more profits. We conceive this system within the framework of a Stackelberg game by treating the SBSs as a specific type of resources. Then, we establish the profit models for both the NSPs and the VR based on stochastic geometry. We further investigate the Stackelberg equilibrium by solving the optimization problems in two cases, i.e., whether or not the VR has a budget plan on renting the SBSs. Numerical results are provided for quantifying the proposed framework by showing its efficiency on pricing and resource allocation.

Network utility optimization-based joint user association and content placement in heterogeneous networks

“…In recent years, content deployment strategies with different optimization objectives in HetNets have been studied [11][12][13][14][15][16]. The authors in [11,12] aim to maximize the cache hit probability, defined as the probability that a file requested by the typical user is delivered successfully to the user, to achieve the optimal cache content placement strategies.…”

“…The authors in [12] study the effect of retransmissions on the optimal cache placement policy for both static and mobile user scenarios in cache-enabled small cell networks and determine the optimal caching probability of the files that maximizes the hit probability. In [13], the authors consider a caching system consisting of a video retailer (VR) and a number of network service providers (NSPs) aiming to achieve the maximal network profit. The caching strategy is obtained by modeling the system within the framework of a Stackelberg game and establishing the profit models for both the VR and the NSPs.…”

“…It has been shown in previous research works that the transmission performance of UEs can be enhanced significantly by caching contents at the infrastructures of the RANs [11][12][13][14][15][16]; hence, designing reasonable cache content placement schemes by taking into account both caching constraints and possible performance enhancement is of particular importance. However, while most of previous research works study user association problem or cache content placement problem independently, these two problems are indeed closely related.…”

“…• The problem of user association or content placement in HetNets has been studied separately in previous works [2][3][4][5][6][7] and [11][12][13][14][15][16]. In this paper, we jointly consider the user association and content placement problem in cache-enabled HetNets and design jointly optimal strategies so that the overall performance of the networks can be maximized.…”

D2D-Enabled Small Cell Network Control Scheme Based on the Dynamic Stackelberg Game

“…, g ], which is frequently requested by users. Generally, the vector Q can be modeled by a Zipf distribution, which is a discrete probability distribution commonly used in the modeling of rare events [21].…”