Dependable Content Distribution in D2D-Based Cooperative Vehicular Networks: A Big Data-Integrated Coalition Game Approach

Driven by the evolutionary development of automobile industry and cellular technologies, dependable vehicular connectivity has become essential to realize future intelligent transportation systems (ITS). In this paper, we investigate how to achieve dependable content distribution in device-to-device (D2D)-based cooperative vehicular networks by combining big data-based vehicle trajectory prediction with coalition formation game-based resource allocation. First, vehicle trajectory is predicted based on global positioning system and geographic information system data, which is critical for finding reliable and long-lasting vehicle connections. Then, the determination of content distribution groups with different lifetimes is formulated as a coalition formation game. We model the utility function based on the minimization of average network delay, which is transferable to the individual payoff of each coalition member according to its contribution. The merge and split process is implemented iteratively based on preference relations, and the final partition is proved to converge to a Nash-stable equilibrium. Finally, we evaluate the proposed algorithm based on real-world map and realistic vehicular traffic. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can achieve superior performance in terms of average network delay and content distribution efficiency compared with the other heuristic schemes.