{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,7]],"date-time":"2026-03-07T18:12:25Z","timestamp":1772907145094,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,15]],"date-time":"2018-10-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1539561600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["No. 61771488, No. 61671473, No. 61801492 and No. 61631020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. 61771488, No. 61671473, No. 61801492 and No. 61631020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"the Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Jiangsu Province","award":["No. BK20160034"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. BK20160034"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In scenarios such as natural disasters and military strikes, it is common for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to form groups to execute reconnaissance and surveillance. To ensure the effectiveness of UAV communications, repeated resource acquisition issues and transmission mechanism designs need to be addressed urgently. Since large-scale UAVs will generate high transmission overhead due to the overlapping resource requirements, in this paper, we propose a resource allocation optimization method based on distributed data content in a Flying Ad-hoc network (FANET). The resource allocation problem with the goal of throughput maximization is constructed as a coalition game framework. Firstly, a data transmission mechanism is designed for UAVs to execute information interaction within the coalitions. Secondly, a novel mechanism of coalition selection based on group-buying is investigated for UAV coalitions to acquire data from the central UAV. The data transmission and coalition selection problem are modeled as coalition graph game and coalition formation game, respectively. Through the design of the utility function, we prove that both games have stable solutions. We also prove the convergence of the proposed approach with coalition order and Pareto order. Based on simulation results, coalition order based coalition selection algorithm (CO-CSA) and Pareto order based coalition selection algorithm (PO-CSA) are proposed to explore the stable coalition partition of system model. CO-CSA and PO-CSA can achieve higher data throughput than the contrast onetime coalition selection algorithm (Onetime-CSA) (at least increased by 34.5% and 16.9%, respectively). Besides, although PO-CSA has relatively lower throughput gain, its convergence times is on average 50.9% less than that of CO-CSA, which means that the algorithm choice is scenario-dependent.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info9100253","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,16]],"date-time":"2018-10-16T02:52:53Z","timestamp":1539658373000},"page":"253","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Group Buying-Based Data Transmission in Flying Ad-Hoc Networks: A Coalition Game Approach"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3262-8623","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lang","family":"Ruan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The College of Communications Engineering, Army Engineering University of PLA, Nanjing 210000, China"},{"name":"Key Embedded Technology and Intelligent System Laboratory, College of Information Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541006, China"}]},{"given":"Jin","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The College of Communications Engineering, Army Engineering University of PLA, Nanjing 210000, China"}]},{"given":"Qiuju","family":"Guo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"PLA 75836 Troops, Guangzhou 510400, China"}]},{"given":"Xiaobo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The College of Communications Engineering, Army Engineering University of PLA, Nanjing 210000, China"}]},{"given":"Yuli","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The College of Communications Engineering, Army Engineering University of PLA, Nanjing 210000, China"},{"name":"Key Embedded Technology and Intelligent System Laboratory, College of Information Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541006, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2577-0349","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dianxiong","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The College of Communications Engineering, Army Engineering University of PLA, Nanjing 210000, China"},{"name":"Key Embedded Technology and Intelligent System Laboratory, College of Information Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541006, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"36","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2016.7470933","article-title":"Wireless communications with unmanned aerial vehicles: Opportunities and challenges","volume":"54","author":"Zeng","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, D., Xu, Y., Wang, J., Xu, Y., Anpalagan, A., Wu, Q., Wang, H., and Shen, L. (2018). Self-organizing relay selection in UAV communication networks: A matching game perspective. IEEE Wirel. Commun.","DOI":"10.1109\/MWC.001.1700434"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1254","DOI":"10.1016\/j.adhoc.2012.12.004","article-title":"Flying ad-hoc networks (FANETs): A survey","volume":"11","author":"Bekmezci","year":"2013","journal-title":"Ad Hoc Netw."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"194","DOI":"10.1109\/CC.2018.8485481","article-title":"Energy-efficient multi-UAV coverage deployment in UAV networks: A game-theoretic framework","volume":"15","author":"Ruan","year":"2018","journal-title":"China Commun."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21697","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2018.2828033","article-title":"A one-leader multi-follower bayesian-Stackelberg game for anti-jamming transmission in UAV communication networks","volume":"6","author":"Xu","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_6","first-page":"43","article-title":"Next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) cooperative communications","volume":"37","author":"Zou","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Nanjing Univ. Posts Telecommun. Nat. Sci. Ed."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Fang, T., Tian, H., Zhang, X., Yang, Y., Zhang, Y., and Xu, Y. Location-aware emergency content delivery in UAV-assisted networks: A game-theoretic approach. IEEE Access, under major revision."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"601","DOI":"10.1109\/TAES.2017.2761139","article-title":"Optimizing communication and computation for multi-UAV information gathering applications","volume":"54","author":"Thammawichai","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"808","DOI":"10.1109\/LCOMM.2018.2800737","article-title":"Optimal node placement and resource allocation for UAV relaying network","volume":"22","author":"Fan","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Lett."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"604","DOI":"10.1109\/LCOMM.2016.2633248","article-title":"Placement optimization of UAV-mounted mobile base stations","volume":"21","author":"Lyu","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Lett."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5785","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2016.2568260","article-title":"Priority-based data gathering framework in UAV-assisted wireless sensor networks","volume":"16","author":"Say","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ruan, L., Chen, J., Guo, Q., Jiang, H., Zhang, Y., and Liu, D. (2018). A coalition formation game approach for efficient cooperative multi-UAV deployment. Preprints.","DOI":"10.20944\/preprints201809.0132.v1"},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"810","article-title":"Group buying spectrum auctions in cognitive radio networks","volume":"66","author":"Yang","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, Y., Xu, Y., and Anpalagan, A. (arXiv, 2018). Context-aware group buying in ultra-dense small cell networks: Unity is strength, arXiv.","DOI":"10.1109\/MWC.001.1800012"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"77","DOI":"10.1109\/MSP.2009.000000","article-title":"Coalitional game theory for communication network","volume":"26","author":"Saad","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Signal Process. Mag. Spec. Issue Game Theory"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ruan, L., Chen, J., Qiu, Y., Liu, X., Zhang, Y., Zhu, X., and Xu, Y. (2017, January 27\u201330). Context-aware group buying in D2D networks: An overlapping coalition formation game approach. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE 17th International Conference on Communication Technology (ICCT), Chengdu, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCT.2017.8359758"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"898","DOI":"10.1109\/TII.2017.2668439","article-title":"Characterizing multihop aerial networks of COTS multirotors","volume":"13","author":"Pinto","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Ind. Inform."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Parrot, A.R. (2016, January 21). Drone 2. Available online: http:\/\/ardrone2.parrot.com."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4010","DOI":"10.1109\/TVT.2013.2245353","article-title":"Coalitional graph games for popular content distribution in cognitive radio VANETs","volume":"62","author":"Wang","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Arcaute, E., Johari, R., and Mannor, S. (2008, January 23\u201326). Local dynamics for network formation games. Proceedings of the 2008 46th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ALLERTON.2008.4797658"},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"46","article-title":"Overlapping coalition formation games for emerging communication networks","volume":"2016","author":"Wang","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Netw."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"369","DOI":"10.1002\/mde.4090130412","article-title":"Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict. by R. B. Myerson","volume":"13","author":"Hamilton","year":"2010","journal-title":"Managerial Decis. Econ."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"201","DOI":"10.1006\/game.2001.0877","article-title":"The stability of hedonic coalition structures","volume":"38","author":"Bogomolnaia","year":"2002","journal-title":"Games Econ. Behav."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Zhang, Y., Xu, Y., and Wu, Q. Context awareness group buying in D2D networks: A coalition formation game-theoretic approach. IEEE Trans. Veh. Techn., Unpublished work."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1181","DOI":"10.1111\/1468-0262.00155","article-title":"Noncooperative model of network formation","volume":"68","author":"Bala","year":"2000","journal-title":"Econometrica"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"347","DOI":"10.1142\/S0219198909002352","article-title":"A generic approach to coalition formation","volume":"11","author":"Apt","year":"2009","journal-title":"Int. Game Theory Rev."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"124","DOI":"10.1006\/game.1996.0044","article-title":"Potential games","volume":"14","author":"Monderer","year":"1996","journal-title":"Games Econ. Behav."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"180","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTSP.2011.2176916","article-title":"Opportunistic spectrum access in cognitive radio networks: Global optimization using local interaction games","volume":"6","author":"Xu","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Vcking, B. (2006, January 18\u201320). Congestion games: Optimization in competition. Proceedings of the Second ACiD Workshop, Durham, UK."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1380","DOI":"10.1109\/TWC.2012.020812.110025","article-title":"Opportunistic spectrum access in unknown dynamic environment: A game-theoretic stochastic learning solution","volume":"11","author":"Xu","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"403","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ast.2017.05.031","article-title":"A potential game approach to multiple UAV cooperative search and surveillance","volume":"68","author":"Li","year":"2017","journal-title":"Aerosp. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5305","DOI":"10.1109\/TCOMM.2017.2734768","article-title":"Dynamic spectrum access in time-varying environment: Distributed learning beyond expectation optimization","volume":"65","author":"Xu","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Commun."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2015.7355585","article-title":"An effective approach to 5G: Wireless network virtualization","volume":"53","author":"Feng","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"998","DOI":"10.1109\/LCOMM.2018.2815018","article-title":"Anti-jamming Communications Using Spectrum Waterfall: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach","volume":"22","author":"Liu","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Lett."}],"container-title":["Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/9\/10\/253\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T15:25:47Z","timestamp":1760196347000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/9\/10\/253"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,15]]},"references-count":34,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,10]]}},"alternative-id":["info9100253"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/info9100253","relation":{"has-preprint":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.20944\/preprints201809.0260.v1","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2078-2489"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2078-2489","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,15]]}}}