User allocation in multi-hop edge computing networks: a game-theoretical approach

Purpose The purpose of this study is to solve user allocation problem in a multi-hop user allocation (MUA) environment and balance the service on servers. Design/methodology/approach The authors choose to describe the MUA problem as a MUA game. Then, this paper proves the existence of Nash equilibrium in the game. Next, the paper proposes a game-based multi-hop user allocation (GMUA) algorithm to get the solution. Findings Both convergence analysis and comparison experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the GMUA algorithm. The results show that the GMUA algorithm is better than other methods. And the iteration time has limitation which is related to user’s number and resouce limitation. Originality/value This study discusses user allocation problem in multi-hop environment. The authors prove that this problem is NP-hard. They introduce it to a potential game and propose a GMUA algorithm to solve it. The authors analyze this algorithm theoretically and experimentally.