Coexistence of LTE-Unlicensed and WiFi: optimization and Game-Theoretic Frameworks

In this work we propose detailed mathematical models to address the problem of achieving coexistence between the LTE and the WiFi technologies. Specifically, we first formulate an utility maxmization problem where our key contribution lies in identifying the necessary and sufficient set of constraints (including an interesting ctique constraint) that arise while timesharing the available WiFi spectrum among the LTE base-stations. We then use game theory to model scenarios where the LTEs are competitive; the solution is characterized in terms of constrained Nash equilibriums. We also obtain simplified formulations (both optimization and game-theoretic) by replacing the computationally intensive clique constraints with a simpler set of connectivity constraints. Finally, we conduct a numerical study to evaluate the performances of all the proposed schemes.