Deep Reinforcement Learning Orchestration of Game-Theoretic User Association and Resource Allocation in HetNets
Managing dynamic User Association and Resource Allocation (UARA) in modern Heterogeneous Cellular Networks (HetNets) remains a critical open challenge. Existing mathematical optimization and Reinforcement Learning approaches face limitations in handling low-latency decision-making under dynamic traffic conditions. This paper introduces a novel orchestration scheme for game-theoretic UARA in HetNets. The proposed bilevel framework distributes UARA decisions to User Equipment through a multi-objective non-cooperative game. Overlaying the distributed game, a centralized Deep Reinforcement Learning controller orchestrates network performance by dynamically configuring the game's utility parameters, enabling transitions between power awareness, coverage enhancement, and balanced operation. Evaluated on urban HetNet topologies with 3GPP TR 38.901-compliant channel modeling, the proposed framework closely approximates the optimal policy for the considered operational objectives, while delivering higher network throughput than conventional association methods. Furthermore, it incurs low computational overhead and maintains stable performance across the evaluated traffic densities without retraining.