This letter investigates the information-theoretic privacy-utility tradeoff. We analyze the minimum information leakage (f-leakage) under the utility constraint that the excess distortion probability is allowed up to ε∈[0, 1). The derived upper bound is characterized by the ε-cutoff random transformation and a distortion ball.

Many countries have deregulated their electricity retail markets to offer lower electricity charges to consumers. However, many consumers have not switched their suppliers after the deregulation, and electricity suppliers do not tend to reduce their charges intensely. This paper proposes an electricity market model and evolutionary game to analyze the behavior of consumers in electricity retail markets. Our model focuses on switching costs such as an effort at switching, costs in searching for other alternatives, and so on. The evolutionary game examines whether consumers choose a strategy involving exploration of new alternatives with the searching costs as “cooperators” or not. Simulation results demonstrate that the share of cooperators was not improved by simply giving rewards for cooperators as compensation for searching costs. Furthermore, the results also suggest that the degree of cooperators in a network among consumers has a vital role in increasing the share of cooperators and switching rate.

Time-sequence data is high dimensional and contains a lot of information, which can be utilized in various fields, such as insurance, finance, and advertising. Personal data including time-sequence data is converted to anonymized datasets, which need to strike a balance between both privacy and utility. In this paper, we consider low-rank matrix factorization as one of anonymization methods and evaluate its efficiency. We convert time-sequence datasets to matrices and evaluate both privacy and utility. The record IDs in time-sequence data are changed at regular intervals to reduce re-identification risk. However, since individuals tend to behave in a similar fashion over periods of time, there remains a risk of record linkage even if record IDs are different. Hence, we evaluate the re-identification and linkage risks as privacy risks of time-sequence data. Our experimental results show that matrix factorization is a viable anonymization method and it can achieve better utility than existing anonymization methods.

The demand for wireless traffic is increasing rapidly, which has posed huge challenges to mobile network operators (MNOs). A heterogeneous network (HetNet) framework, composed of a marcocell and femtocells, has been proved to be an effective way to cope with the fast-growing traffic demand. In this paper, we assume that both the macrocell and femtocells are owned by the same MNO, with revenue optimization as its ultimate goal. We aim to propose a pricing strategy for macro-femto HetNets with a user centric vision, namely, mobile users would have their own interest to make rational decisions on selecting between the macrocell and femtocells to maximize their individual benefit. We formulate a Stackelberg game to analyze the interactions between the MNO and users, and obtain the equilibrium solution for the Stackelberg game. Via extensive simulations, we evaluate the proposed pricing strategy in terms of its efficiency with respect to the revenue optimization.

This paper summarizes Wi-SUN communication systems and their physical (PHY) layer and media access control (MAC) specifications. Firstly, the Wi-SUN communication systems are categorized into three. The key PHY and MAC standards, IEEE 802.15.4g and .4e, that configure the systems are explained, and fundamental transmission performances of the systems in the PHY layer and MAC layer are evaluated by computer simulations. Then, the Wi-SUN alliance and the Wi-SUN profiles that include IEEE 802.15.4g and .4e are explained. Finally, to understand the transmission performance of actual IEEE 802.15.4g Wi-SUN radio devices, PER performances under AWGN and multipath fading environments are measured by using IEEE 802.15.4g compliant and Wi-SUN alliance certified radio modules. This paper is an instruction paper for the beginners of the Wi-SUN based communications systems.

At present, wireless local area networks (WLANs) based on IEEE802.11 are widely deployed in both private premises and public areas. In a public environment offering several access points (APs), a station (STA) needs to choose which AP to associate with. In this paper, we propose a distributed association control scheme with user guidance to increase users' utility based on uplink and downlink throughputs of individual stations. As part of the scheme, we also present a simple throughput estimation method that considers physical data rate, traffic demand, and frame length in both uplink and downlink. Basically, in the proposed scheme, an AP selects a user and suggests that the user moves to another AP if certain conditions are met. The user then decides whether to accept the suggestion or not in a self-interested manner or in a voluntary manner for the benefit of all users including the user's own self. Through simulations under this condition, we confirm that our distributed association control scheme can improve user utility and fairness even though the channel quality of the new AP is unknown in advance.

The deployment of small cells is one of the most effective means to cope with the traffic explosion of cellular mobile systems. However, a small cell system increases the inter-cell interference, which limits the capacity and degrades the cell-edge user throughput. Inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC), such as fractional frequency reuse (FFR), is a well-known scheme that autonomously mitigates inter-cell interference. In the Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced, the three-dimensional (3D) beamforming, which combines conventional horizontal beamforming and vertical beamforming, has been gaining increasing attention. This paper proposes a novel centralized ICIC scheme that controls the direction of narrow 3D beam for each frequency band of each base station. The centralized controller collects information from the base stations and calculates sub-optimum combinations of narrow beams so as to maximize the proportional fair (PF) utility of all users. This paper describes the throughput of the new centralized ICIC scheme as evaluated by computer simulations and shows it has a significant gain in both average user throughput and cell-edge user throughput compared with the conventional ICIC scheme. This paper also investigates the feasibility of the scheme by assessing its throughput performance in a realistic deployment scenario.

Network selection is one of the hot issues in the fusion of heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs). However, most of previous works only consider selecting single-access network, which wastes other available network resources, rarely take account of multi-access. To make full utilization of available coexisted networks, this paper proposes a novel multi-access selection algorithm based on joint utility optimization for users with multi-mode terminals. At first, the algorithm adopts exponential smoothing method (ESM) to get smoothed values of received signal strength (RSS). Then we obtain network joint utility function under the constraints of bandwidth and number of networks, with the consideration of trade-off between network benefit and cost. At last, Lagrange multiplier and dual optimization methods are used to maximize joint utility. Users select multiple networks according to the optimal association matrix of user and network. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can optimize network joint utility, improve throughput, effectively reduce vertical handoff number, and ensure Quality of Service (QoS).

In communication networks, congestion control, routing, and multiple access schemes for scheduling transmissions are typically regulated by distributed algorithms. Engineers designed these algorithms using clever heuristics that they refined in the light of simulation results and experiments. Over the last two decades, a deeper understanding of these algorithms emerged through the work of researchers. This understanding has a real potential for improving the design of protocols for data centers, cloud computing, and even wireless networks. Since protocols tend to be standardized by engineers, it is important that they become familiar with the insights that emerged in research. We hope that this paper might appeal to practitioners and make the research results intuitive and useful. The methods that the paper describes may be useful for many other resource allocation problems such as in call centers, manufacturing lines, hospitals and the service industry.

In our previous work [2], we proposed a new concept of utility functions for rate control in communication networks. Unlike conventional utility-based rate control in which the utility function of each user is defined as a function of its transmitting data rate, in [2], we defined the utility function of each user as a function of not only its transmitting data rate but also it receiving data rate. The former is called a session-level utility function and the latter is called a user-level utility function. The user-level utility function reflects the satisfaction with the service of a user with two-way communication, which consists of transmitting and receiving sessions, better than the session-level utility function, since user's satisfaction depends on not only the satisfaction with its transmitting session but also that for its receiving session. In [2], an algorithm that required each user to know the exact utility function of its correspondent was developed. However, in some cases, this information might not be available due to some reasons such as security and privacy issues, and in such cases, the algorithm developed in [2] cannot be used. Hence, in this paper, we develop a new distributed algorithm that does not require each user to know the utility function of its correspondent. Numerical results show that our new algorithm, which does not require the utility information of the correspondent, converges to the same solution to that with the algorithm that requires the utility information of the correspondent.

Known an a criterion that solves the trade-off between fairness and efficiency, proportional fairness is well-studied in cellular networks in the Qualcomm High Data Rate System. In multi-hop wireless networks, proportional fairness is solved by maximizing the logarithmic aggregate utility function. However, this approach can deal with instantaneous rates only where long term fairness is to be targeted. In this case, cumulative rates are more suitable. This paper proposes a framework for multi-hop wireless networks to guarantee fairness of cumulative data rates. The framework can be extended to other kinds of fairness such as max-min fairness, and to more complex networks, multi-channel multi-radio wireless networks.

The Start-frame-delimiter (SFD) is crucial in packet-based communications system since it indicates the end of preamble and the start of a frame. In 802.15 smart utility network system, the function of SFD is extended. Two different SFDs are used for achieving frame synchronization and at the same time, to differentiate coded and uncoded packets. This paper proposes a systematic method for the selection of SFD pair for FSK based systems. The design method is adopted by 802.15.4g Task Group with the backward compatibility to IEEE 802.15.4d systems taken into account. Four selection criteria are specified and discussed to determine the pair of sequences providing least packet error detection rate with the consideration of eliminating the adjacent channel image signal commonly occurred in the low IF receiver. The probability of false alarm and miss detection is analyzed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed selection method. The simulation results confirm that error frame detection rate of 1e-3 can be achieved with selected SFD sequences. The proposed method for selection of SFD pairs ensures a robust packet header and thus better payload protection. The SFD design approach is applicable to other packet-based wireless communication FSK systems with the support of more than one SFD sequence.

In OFDM-based cognitive radio systems, due to the out-of-band leakage from the secondary transmission, the interference to primary users must be considered in order to guarantee the quality of service of the primary transmission. For multiuser cognitive radio systems, there exist two crucial issues in resource allocation: fairness and efficiency, in order to balance the two issues, we proposed a new utility-based cross-layer resource allocation algorithm, which can not only control the interference to primary users caused by secondary users, but also balance the spectral efficiency and fairness among cognitive users. Further, the optimal NP-hard resource allocation problem in multiuser OFDM-based systems is reduced to the sub-optimal solution by dividing the original problem into the subcarrier allocation problem and the power allocation problem. It is shown that the proposed algorithm can obtain the best performance in terms of the average rate or the utility among existing algorithms, and at the same time, all the users obtain fair resource allocation.

This paper proposes a utility function-based scheduling algorithm for integrated real-time and non-real-time services in long-term evolution systems. The proposed utility function satisfies the target dropping ratio of real-time users; it uses the delay constraint and increases the throughput of non-real-time users by scheduling real-time users together with non-real-time users. Simulation results show that the proposed scheduling algorithm significantly improves the throughput of non-real-time users without sacrificing the quality of service of real-time users.

We study joint rate control and resource allocation with a packet collision constraint that maximizes the total utility of secondary users in cognitive radio networks. We formulate and decouple the original optimization problem into separable subproblems and then develop an algorithm that converges to optimal rate control and resource allocation. The proposed algorithm can operate on different time-scales to reduce the amortized time complexity.

This letter introduces a new fairness concept, namely proportional quasi-fairness and proves that the optimal end-to-end rate of a network utility maximization can be proportionally quasi-fair with a properly chosen network utility function for an arbitrary compact feasible set.

Base Station (BS) cooperation has been considered as a promising technology to mitigate co-channel interference (CCI), yielding great capacity improvement in cellular systems. In this paper, by combining frequency domain cooperation and space domain cooperation together, we design a new CCI mitigation scheme to maximize the total utility for a multi-cell OFDMA network. The scheme formulates the CCI mitigation problem as a mixture integer programming problem, which involves a joint user-set-oriented subcarrier assignment and power allocation. A computationally feasible algorithm based on Lagrange dual decomposition is derived to evaluate the optimal value of the problem. Moreover, a low-complexity suboptimal algorithm is also presented. Simulation results show that our scheme outperforms the counterparts incorporating BS cooperation in a single domain considerably, and the proposed low-complexity algorithm achieves near optimal performance.

Base station coordination is considered as a promising technique to mitigate inter-cell interference and improve the cell-edge performance in cellular orthogonal frequency division multiple-access (OFDMA) networks. The problem to design an efficient radio resource allocation scheme for coordinated cellular OFDMA networks incorporating base station coordination has been only partially investigated. In this contribution, a novel radio resource allocation algorithm with universal frequency reuse is proposed to support base station coordinated transmission. Firstly, with the assumption of global coordination between all base station sectors in the network, a coordinated subchannel assignment algorithm is proposed. Then, by dividing the entire network into a number of disjoint coordinated clusters of base station sectors, a reduced-feedback algorithm for subchannel assignment is proposed for practical use. The utility function based on the user average throughput is used to balance the efficiency and fairness of wireless resource allocation. System level simulation results demonstrate that the reduced-feedback subchannel assignment algorithm significantly improves the cell-edge average throughput and the fairness index of users in the network, with acceptable degradation of cell-average performance.

With development of wireless communication technologies, users are no longer satisfied with only a single service provided per time. They are willing to enjoy multiple services simultaneously. Therefore scheduling multiple services per user becomes quite important usability issue in the area of resource management. In this paper, the multiple-service scheduling problem is firstly formulated as an integrated optimization problem based on a utility function in homogeneous service systems. Due to its NP-hard characteristic, a set of low-complexity sub-optimal algorithms is therefore proposed and used to schedule resources for multiple services per user at the downlink of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The proposed algorithms are capable to effectively and efficiently distribute assigned resources among multiple services for one user. Moreover the utility of our algorithms is further extended from homogeneous service systems to heterogeneous service systems. And full exploitation of multi-user diversity gain is achieved while guaranteeing quality of service (QoS). The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms traditional algorithm in terms of system best effort service throughput and fairness criterion.

In most cases in wireless networks, a user has a two-way communication that consists of two sessions: uplink and downlink sessions, and its overall satisfaction to the communication depends on the quality of service of both sessions. However, in most previous approaches in wireless resource allocation, the satisfactions of a user for its uplink and downlink sessions are modeled separately and treated independently, which fails to accurately model user's overall satisfaction to its communication. Hence, in this paper we model user's overall satisfaction to its communication considering both its uplink and downlink sessions. To this end, we propose a novel concept for a utility function to model user's overall satisfaction to its communication, which is called a user-level utility function, considering user's satisfaction to uplink and downlink sessions jointly. To show the appropriateness of our approach, we apply our user-level utility functions to scheduling problems in TDMA wireless networks and show the performance improvement of our approach over the traditional approach that does not treat uplink and downlink sessions of a user jointly.