A Flexible Network Access Scheme for M2M Communications in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

In this paper, we deal with the problem of M2M gateways' network selection for different types of M2M traffic in heterogeneous wireless networks. Based on the difference in traffic's quality of service (QoS) requirements, the M2M traffic produced by various applications is mainly classified as two categories: flexible traffic and rigid traffic. Then, game theory is adopted to solve the problem of network-channel selection with the coexistence of flexible and rigid traffic, named as flexible network access (FNA). We prove the formulated discrete game is a potential game. The existence and feasibility of the Nash equilibrium (NE) of the proposed game are also analyzed. Then, an iterative algorithm based on optimal reaction criterion and a distributed algorithm with limited feedback based on learning automata are presented to obtain the NE of the proposed game. In simulations, the proposed iterative algorithm can achieve a near optimal sum utility of whole network with low complexity compared to the exhaustive search. In addition, the simulation results show that our proposed algorithms outperform existing methods in terms of sum utility and load balance.