Distributed multi-relay selection via political coalition formation in cooperative wireless networks

In this paper, the problem of distributed multi-relay selection in cooperative wireless networks is studied via a political coalition formation game approach. Specifically, a sum-rate maximizing distributed coalition formation algorithm is proposed, in which a winning coalition eventually emerges, which is also self-enforcing (and hence stable). In addition, the proposed algorithm offers a sum-rate performance/stability tradeoff through formation of political parties, which also reduces complexity and overheads. The proposed algorithm is compared with centralized multi-relay selection as well as other multi-relay selection algorithms from literature, and is shown to provide comparable network sum-rate with the added advantage of network stability.