Spectrum Allocation in IAB Networks: A Hierarchical Auction-based Approach

To support the data requirements of exponentially increasing number of cellular users, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and enterprises, wireless cellular networks are undergoing significant architectural enhancements. The heterogeneous network architecture is one such advancement, which can augment the capacity of cellular networks through the addition of femto/pico (small) cells. However, fiber connectivity to each small cell is not feasible. In such scenarios, wireless backhaul enables connectivity between small cells and core network (CN). Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) has emerged as a solution in 5G network, where wireless backhauling is supported. In IAB networks, IAB-donors are connected to the CN through fiber connectivity, and the multiple IAB-nodes are associated with IAB-donors through wireless backhaul. IAB Nodes can support small cells and provide last mile connectivity to users and IAB-donors act as wireless backhaul provider. For efficient utilization of the spectrum in wireless backhaul, we design an auction-based mechanism to allocate resources dynamically across IAB-nodes considering the spatial and temporal variation of the network traffic. Moreover, using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the proposed mechanism achieves optimal social welfare.