Strategy-Proof Resource Allocation Mechanism for Multi-Flow Wireless Multicast

• Published in: IEEE transactions on wireless communications 2015-06, Vol.14 (6), p.3143-3156
• Main Authors: Ko, Chun-Han, Chou, Ching-Chun, Meng, Hsiang-Yun, Wei, Hung-Yu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 3GPP MBMS; Cost accounting; Encoding; game theory; max-min fairness; mechanism design; Pareto efficiency; Pricing; proportional fairness; Resource allocation; Resource management; Routing; strategy-proofness; Throughput; Wireless communication; wireless multicast
• ISSN: 1536-1276; 1558-2248
• DOI: 10.1109/TWC.2015.2402680

Wireless multicast is a promising technology for delivering information from a server to multiple users. Through wireless multicast, the server can fulfill the data requirement of multiple users by simply transmitting a single copy of data contents, which increases the efficient usage of radio resources. This paper considers a multi-flow multicast scenario where a base station (BS) is capable of sending multiple data flows to multiple multicast groups. To configure the multicast and achieve optimal resource allocation, the BS may require the feedback of the channel-quality information (CQI) from the users. The CQI is, in general, the users' private information as only the users can directly measure their channel qualities. However, the selfish users may manipulate the multicast configuration through untruthful feedback to increase their own performance. Regarding this issue, we propose a multicast resource allocation mechanism with the designs of the pricing scheme and the weighted water-filling resource allocation. Our analysis shows that the proposed mechanism can elicit the true CQI from the users (strategy-proofness), avoiding any manipulation of multicast configuration and thereby guaranteeing efficient and fair network operation.