Resource allocation using a reverse iterative combinatorial auction for device-to-device underlay cellular networks

An innovative auction-based allocation scheme is proposed to improve the performance of device-to-device (D2D) communications as an underlay in the downlink (DL) cellular networks. To optimize the system sum rate over the resource sharing of both D2D and cellular modes, we introduce a reverse iterative combinatorial auction as the allocation mechanism. In the auction, all the spectrum resources are considered as a set of resource units, which compete to obtain business as bidders while packages of D2D pairs are auctioned off as goods in each auction round. We first formulate the valuation of each resource unit for packages of D2D links. And then a detailed non-monotonic descending price auction algorithm is explained. Further, we prove that the proposed scheme is cheat-proof, converges in a finite number of iteration rounds, and has lower complexity compared to a traditional combinatorial allocation. The simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm efficiently leads to a good performance on the system sum rate.