Security-Aware Resource Sharing in Software Defined Air-Ground Integrated Networks: A Game Approach

To accommodate the surge of data traffic in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications, software defined air-ground integrated networks (SD-AGNs) hold great potentials for efficient resource allocation and intelligent security countermeasures for UAVs. In SD-AGNs, virtualized bandwidth, computing and security resources owned by terrestrial mobile edge computing (MEC) nodes can be dynamically allocated to satisfy UAVs’ diverse demands in data transmission and security protection. However, with complicated cooperative interactions among MEC nodes and competition among UAVs, it is of great challenge to allocate both the security and wireless resource in SD-AGNs. In this paper, we propose a security-aware resource sharing scheme for UAVs to jointly allocate bandwidth and security resource in SD-AGNs, using a game-theoretic approach. Specifically, we first investigate a software-defined collaborative mechanism to promote resource utilization for MEC nodes through coalition formation and resource sharing within each coalition. Then, a coalitional game model is presented to construct the Nash-stable coalition structure for MEC nodes. Furthermore, by modeling the interactions among UAVs as a non-cooperative game, their optimal demands of wireless and security resource, as well as the Nash equilibrium, are analyzed in the competitive environment. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can effectively improve resource efficiency and reduce average delay.