Saad, WalidHan, ZhuDebbah, MérouaneHjorungnes, AreBa?ar, Tamer2020-05-112020-05-115/25/2009Copyright 2009 IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. This is a pre-print version of a published paper that is available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5230848. Recommended citation: Saad, Walid, Zhu Han, Merouane Debbah, Are Hjorungnes, and Tamer Basar. "Coalitional game theory for communication networks." IEEE Signal Processing Magazine 26, no. 5 (2009): 77-97. DOI: 10.1109/MSP.2009.000000. This item has been deposited in accordance with publisher copyright and licensing terms and with the author's permission.https://hdl.handle.net/10657/6500In this tutorial, we provided a comprehensive overview of coalitional game theory, and its usage in wireless and communication networks. For this purpose, we introduced a novel classification of coalitional games by grouping the sparse literature into three distinct classes of games: canonical coalitional games, coalition formation games, and coalitional graph games. For each class, we explained in details the fundamental properties, discussed the main solution concepts, and provided an in-depth analysis of the methodologies and approaches for using these games in both game theory and communication applications. The presented applications have been carefully selected from a broad range of areas spanning a diverse number of research problems. The tutorial also sheds light on future opportunities for using the strong analytical tool of coalitional games in a number of applications. In a nutshell, this article fills a void in existing communications literature, by providing a novel tutorial on applying coalitional game theory in communication networks through comprehensive theory and technical details as well as through practical examples drawn from both game theory and communication application.Game theoryCommunication networksCollaborationPerformance lossCostsNash equilibriumResource managementRadio controlCommunication system controlPower controlArticle