A Fast Cloud-Based Network Selection Scheme Using Coalition Formation Games in Vehicular Networks

Leveraging multiple wireless technologies and radio access networks (RANs), vehicles on the move have the potential to get robust connectivity and continuous service. To support the demands of as many vehicles as possible, an efficient and fast network selection scheme is critically important to achieve high performance and efficiency. So far, prior works have primarily focused on design of optimization algorithms and utility functions for either user or network performance. Most such studies do not address the complexities involved in the acquisition of needed information and the execution of algorithms, making them unsuitable for practical implementations in vehicles. This paper proposes a fast cloud-based network selection scheme for vehicular networks. By leveraging a compute cloud's abundant computing and data storage resources, vehicles can leverage wider scope network information for decision-making. Vehicles select best access networks through a coalition formation game approach. A one-iteration fast convergence algorithm is proposed to achieve the final state of coalition structure in the game. Through extensive simulation, the proposed network selection scheme was shown to balance system throughput and fairness with a built-in utility division rule of the framework. The algorithm efficiency showed eightfold enhancement over a conventional coalition formation algorithm. Such features validate the potential of implementation in practice.

I. Introduction

UBIQUITOUS broadband Internet connectivity has been brought to automobiles on the road by a multitude of wireless communication technologies, e.g., Wi-Fi, dedicated short-range communications, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), and Long-Term Evolution (LTE). Recently, automotive manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz [1], network device manufacturers such as Cisco [2], service providers such as Google [3], transportation agencies [4], and academic researchers [5] have shown great interest in connected vehicles, such as driving assistance, telematics, traffic management, etc. [6]. However, despite several solutions from academia to enhance throughput, such as using directional antennas [7] or network coding [8], and the ability of mobile phones to support multiple technologies (e.g., 4G + Wi-Fi) today even on the move, performance of continuous data transfer (either uplink or downlink) remains limited and fluctuates highly. The two root causes of this limitation are high mobility and limited network resources.