Title: Game Theory for Multi-Access Edge Computing: Survey, Use Cases, and Future Trends,
Abstract: Game Theory (GT) has been used with significant success to formulate, and
either design or optimize, the operation of many representative communications
and networking scenarios. The games in these scenarios involve, as usual,
diverse players with conflicting goals. This paper primarily surveys the
literature that has applied theoretical games to wireless networks, emphasizing
use cases of upcoming Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC). MEC is relatively new
and offers cloud services at the network periphery, aiming to reduce service
latency backhaul load, and enhance relevant operational aspects such as Quality
of Experience or security. Our presentation of GT is focused on the major
challenges imposed by MEC services over the wireless resources. The survey is
divided into classical and evolutionary games. Then, our discussion proceeds to
more specific aspects which have a considerable impact on the game usefulness,
namely: rational vs. evolving strategies, cooperation among players, available
game information, the way the game is played (single turn, repeated), the game
model evaluation, and how the model results can be applied for both optimizing
resource-constrained resources and balancing diverse trade-offs in real edge
networking scenarios. Finally, we reflect on lessons learned, highlighting
future trends and research directions for applying theoretical model games in
upcoming MEC services, considering both network design issues and usage
scenarios.