Abstract:

A data offloading mechanism is proposed where one user provides data it cached (data provider) to an adjacent user through device to device (D2D) communication so that the cellular network’s congestion can be alleviated. Without proper compensation, the data provider would not participate. Since the offloading cost may vary among different users, the compensation design is a challenge problem. An incentive mechanism based on contract theory is proposed to address the incentive providing problem. Through proper design, the data provider will choose the amount according to its true cost, and the expected revenue of the cellular network operator will be maximized. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can effectively incentivize user participation, and improve the cellular network performance.