Joint Relay Selection and Location Deployment for Multi-UAV Relaying Systems Based on Stackelberg Game

Due to its flexible networking capability and strong resilience, the multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system can provide robust communication support. However, the selection of relay UAVs by users and the location of UAVs are intricately linked to the performance of the system. Therefore, this paper establishes a multi-UAV relaying system model based on a hierarchical game framework and proposes a joint optimization scheme for relay selection and location deployment (RSLD) based on Stackelberg game. The optimization objective is to maximize the global network rate of the system under limited channel resources. Due to the discrete nature of relay selection, this paper models the competition among users for relays using a congestion game model. Based on a many-to-one matching game, the relay selection of each user is adjusted. Subsequently, the relay UAVs optimize their location deployment using a mixed strategy and an iterative algorithm. The two processes iterate with each other until the Stackelberg equilibrium is reached. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed RSLD scheme achieves higher transmission and fairness satisfaction compared with the random relay assignment scheme. Furthermore, it has good robustness when facing changes in network states.