This formulation provides a rigorous and tractable framework for distributed spectrum sharing in 6G O-RAN systems, with the potential to support intelligent and adaptive control in future wireless networks.
Abstract
The evolution of wireless networks toward 6G and Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architectures brings unprecedented demands for flexible and energy-efficient resource allocation mechanisms. A key challenge is to allocate radio resources effectively among heterogeneous units while satisfying diverse quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. Traditional allocation methods often fail to capture energy efficiency considerations or lack adaptability in highly dynamic and decentralized environments. To address this, we formulate the resource allocation problem as a non-cooperative game among SDN-enabled Central Units (CUs) and Distributed Units (DUs), where each player’s utility captures a trade-off between throughput gains and resource costs under threshold-based SINR QoS constraints. We show that the game admits an exact generalized potential function, guaranteeing the existence of a pure-strategy Nash equilibrium and convergence under sequential best response dynamics. The SDN controller supervises the network by adjusting system-level parameters, such as the resource price, to guide the network toward efficient and fair allocations. This formulation provides a rigorous and tractable framework for distributed spectrum sharing in 6G O-RAN systems, with the potential to support intelligent and adaptive control in future wireless networks. The proposed framework is evaluated against both classical resource allocation strategies (equal and greedy allocation) and advanced optimization-based and game-theoretic baselines, including convex optimization, proportional fairness, water-filling, and Stackelberg formulations, and shows competitive performance.
Dynamic wireless resource allocation in multi-cell networks is challenging due to non-stationary traffic, intercell interference coupling, and heterogeneous quality-of-service (QoS) constraints. Conventional schedulers and standalone metaheuristics lack adaptability across operating regimes, while deep reinforcement learning (DRL) methods often incur high training complexity and stability limitations. This paper proposes a context-aware reinforcement hyper-heuristic framework for dynamic wireless resource allocation. A contextual bandit controller hierarchically selects among multiple low-level optimization heuristics based on real-time network state features. A multi-objective reward design jointly optimizes throughput, fairness, power efficiency, and allocation stability. We establish sublinear regret guarantees under the contextual bandit model and prove convergence under standard stochastic approximation conditions. Extensive simulations over 5,000 large-scale multi-cell instances demonstrate consistent improvements over proportional fair scheduling, evolutionary methods, and DRL-based allocators in throughput, Jain's fairness index, convergence speed, and robustness to traffic perturbations. Statistical tests confirm the significance of the gains. The results indicate that reinforcementdriven hyper-heuristic orchestration provides a scalable and theoretically grounded solution for dynamic wireless resource management.
K. Danach, Samir Haddad, J. Sayah et al.· 2026 6th International Confe...· 0 citations
This article addresses the planning and allocation of spectral resource blocks for unicast (UC) and Multicast-Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MB-SFN) transmissions in dense Sixth-Generation (6G) cellular networks, where the choice of transmission mode directly influences spectral efficiency and Quality of Service (QoS). The objective is to identify the conditions under which the intercellular cooperation inherent to MB-SFN becomes more efficient than the UC mode for spectral resource block utilization under QoS constraints. To this end, we conduct a comparative performance analysis based on: i) Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, used as a numerical benchmark to accurately capture complex radio interactions, and ii) a fluid analytical framework, based on a continuous approximation of the network in which the discrete structure of base stations is replaced by a homogeneous surface density. Within this framework, we derive analytical expressions for the Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), enabling a tractable characterization of aggregate interference. Resource block allocation expressions are then proposed for both modes, incorporating SINR and outage probability as QoS constraints. The main contribution of this paper lies in deriving, using the fluid framework, an explicit analytical expression for the critical user threshold that characterizes the switch from UC mode to MB-SFN mode, beyond which the latter becomes more spectrum-efficient. The switching decision highlights the duality between the two modes: MB-SFN is constrained by the minimum SINR with resource consumption independent of the number of users, whereas UC mode depends on the average SINR and consumption proportional to the number of users. An in-depth analysis of the combined effect of network parameters is also conducted, highlighting their interactions and their influence on the switching threshold. Finally, the strong agreement with MC simulations validates the accuracy of the fluid framework, providing an effective analytical tool for optimizing adaptive transmission strategies.
M. Younes, C. Perrine· IEEE Open Journal of the Com...· 0 citations
Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a kind of 5G and 6G radio access technology, which not only enhances spectrum efficiency but also enables several users at the same time to access the network and share the same frequency resource. This paper studies the problem of jointly optimizing power allocation and channel resource assignment in the downlink multi-carrier NOMA system, with the aim of maximizing the weighted sum rate under individual quality-of-service (QoS) constraints, per-user minimum rate requirements, and total transmit power budget. We cast the problem as a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) task and decompose it into two tractable subproblems: A low-complexity channel allocation step using a bipartite matching framework, followed by an successive convex approximation (SCA) solution to the power control step with Lagrangian duality. A closed-form expression for the optimal power ratio under fixed channel assignment is derived to achieve efficient iteration between the two stages. To further reduce the computational burden for dense deployment of the network, we combined the iterative scheme with a DRL module based on the deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm to enable the system to respond to changes in channel state without having to solve the optimization problem at each time slot. Simulation results show that when deployed in a 3GPP-compliant urban macro-cell environment, the proposed joint scheme can achieve 38 percent more sum throughput than orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) baselines, a 22 percent increase over fixed NOMA power allocation, and converges within 15 iterations under moderate user density. The energy efficiency gain is 3.62 bits/J/Hz when combining the DRL-based dynamic policy, and the practical feasibility of the proposed framework for next-generation network deployment is verified.
Yuming Fu, Xiaofeng Chang, Wanze Gan· Digital Signal and Computer...· 0 citations
The rapid advancements of next-generation vehicular networks require intelligent, low-latency, and efficient resource management to support heterogeneous services. In this work, we propose a Traffic-aware Dynamic Resource Allocation (TADRA) architecture for UAV-assisted vehicular O-RAN to address the challenges of dynamic traffic conditions, infrastructure failures, and stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements. Due to the dynamic mobility and flexible deployment characteristics, UAV Open Radio Units (O-RUs) in the TADRA architecture support the terrestrial infrastructure under overload or failure conditions, dynamically extending coverage, balancing traffic loads, and restoring service to maintain uninterrupted QoS across diverse and heterogeneous traffic demands. Unlike existing static or single-layer solutions, our proposed TADRA integrates RAN Intelligent Controllers (RICs) with a Hierarchical Traffic-Aware Multi-Agent Twin-Delayed (TMT) algorithm to optimize the allocation of computation and radio resources. This joint optimization problem is NP-hard, highly dynamic, and coupled across agents, making TMT a tractable and adaptive alternative. This hierarchical framework performs traffic prioritization at the upper (application) layer and resource allocation at the lower (MAC) layer, facilitating adaptive decision-making under diverse vehicular traffic patterns. Numerical results demonstrate that our solution provides substantial gains over MATD3, MADDPG, and GA, achieving 17% lower latency, 10% higher throughput, 14% lower energy consumption, and 6.5% higher reliability.
Hayla Nahom Abishu, Ahmed Badawy, Amr Mohamed et al.· IEEE Transactions on Network...· 0 citations
Virtualization in 5G and beyond networks enables the creation of virtual networks (i.e., network slices) tailored to the needs of different applications. To maximize revenue under limited infrastructure resources, InPs must decide in real time whether to admit incoming slice requests (SRs) based on their resource demands and offered values, while accounting for the opportunity cost of consuming scarce resources. To address this challenge, we introduce Online Pricing-based Slice Admission Control and Resource Allocation (OPA) framework. This framework dynamically assigns pseudo-prices to resources that capture long-term scarcity and anticipated inter-temporal opportunity costs. The short-term admission and resource allocation decisions for each SR are then guided by these prices. Additionally, we design an exponential pricing strategy that guarantees bounded worst-case performance. To improve practical performance, we further develop a data-driven exponential pricing approach that learns from historical data. Evaluations on a real-world network topology show that it improves mean revenue by 32.2% and 26.7% over state-of-the-art DRL and optimization-based approaches, respectively, while reducing computational cost by an order of magnitude relative to the latter.
Muhammad Sulaiman, Bo Sun, M. A. Salahuddin et al.· 0 citations
The next generation of wireless systems extends ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) to the realm of massive connections, termed mURLLC. To address the inherent conflict between stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements in URLLC and the problem of severe and highly fluctuating interference behind demands of massive connectivity, effective fast fading (FF) mitigation and resource allocation strategies are crucial. Through in-depth analysis of FF characteristics, this paper derives optimized configurations for two FF mitigation approaches: protection margin reservation and $K$ -repetition. Furthermore, we integrate these FF mitigation strategies into a hierarchical-clustering (HC)-based resource allocation algorithm for configured-grant in mURLLC. This results in a highly practical and efficient algorithm for managing radio resources and interference in mURLLC scenarios. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm achieves over 65% reduction in resource consumption without compromising reliability, significantly enhancing network capacity to support demanding mURLLC applications.
Yichen Guo, Lili Xu, Yihang Cheng et al.· IEEE Transactions on Wireles...· 0 citations