This book presents theoretical research between wireless communications, networking, and economics using the framework of contract theory. This work fills a void in the literature by closely combining contract theoretical approaches with wireless networks design problems. Topics covered include classification in contract theory, reward design, adverse selection, and moral hazard. The authors also explore incentive mechanisms for device-to-device communication in cellular networks, insurance plans for service assurance in cloud computing markets with incomplete information, multi-dimensional incentive mechanisms and tournament based incentive mechanisms in mobile crowdsourcing. Financial applications include financing contracts with adverse selection for spectrum trading in cognitive radio networks and complementary investment of infrastructure and service providers in wireless network visualization. This book offers a useful reference for engineers and researchers in the wireless communication community who seek to integrate the notions from contract theory and wireless engineering, while emphasizing on how contract theory can be applied in wireless networks. It is also suitable for advanced-level students studying information systems or communications engineering.

With the rapid development of the modern communication networks, the problem we need to solve is no longer a pure engineering issue. In various heterogeneous network scenarios, there are service providers in need of performing economic analysis on how to ensure third parties' cooperation or attract end-users. In the other way round, third parties or end-users need to evaluate the economic benefits of cooperating or using the services from different service providers. Overall, the current wireless networks are facing a problem in which there is a tight coupling of industry-specific technologies and non-technology related network externality. Contract theory, the 2014 Nobel Prize of economic science, has been widely used in industries, from banking to telecommunications. Particularly, contract theory is an efficient tool in dealing with asymmetric information between employer/seller(s) and employee/buyer(s) by introducing cooperation. In wireless networks, the employer/seller(s) and employee/buyer(s) can be of different roles depending on the scenario under consideration. Thus, there is a great potential to utilize the ideas, methods, and models of contract theory to design efficient wireless network mechanisms. Given this background, this dissertation provides a theoretical research between wireless communications, networking, and economics. Especially, different contract theory models have been applied in various wireless networks scenarios. The main contribution of this dissertation are as follows. An overview of basic concepts, classifications, and models of contract theory is provided. Furthermore, comparisons with existing economics methods in wireless networks are conducted. Applications of contract theory for wireless networks are studied. Specially, three contract theory problems: adverse selection, moral hazard, and a mixed of the two, are applied into device-to-device (D2D) communication, mobile crowdsourcing, cognitive radio network, respectively. Numerical results are provided to show that contract theory can be utilized for developing effective mechanisms for emerging wireless network scenarios such as traffic offloading, mobile crowdsourcing, as well as spectrum trading. The potential and challenges of contract theory as a tool for designing mechanisms in future wireless networks are discussed. This dissertation provides a theoretical research between wireless communications, networking, and economics, in which different contract theory models have been applied in various wireless networks scenarios. This work places a fundamental research on network economics, especially with the framework of contract theory. This research has the potential to contribute to the future of wireless networks network economics area, and have a long term effect on problems such as incentive mechanism and pricing schemes design, resource sharing and trading.

Wireless Network Security Theories and Applications discusses the relevant security technologies, vulnerabilities, and potential threats, and introduces the corresponding security standards and protocols, as well as provides solutions to security concerns. Authors of each chapter in this book, mostly top researchers in relevant research fields in the U.S. and China, presented their research findings and results about the security of the following types of wireless networks: Wireless Cellular Networks, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), Bluetooth Networks and Communications, Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The audience of this book may include professors, researchers, graduate students, and professionals in the areas of Wireless Networks, Network Security and Information Security, Information Privacy and Assurance, as well as Digital Forensics. Lei Chen is an Assistant Professor at Sam Houston State University, USA; Jiahuang Ji is an Associate Professor at Sam Houston State University, USA; Zihong Zhang is a Sr. software engineer at Jacobs Technology, USA under NASA contract.

This book provides the fundamental knowledge of the classical matching theory problems. It builds up the bridge between the matching theory and the 5G wireless communication resource allocation problems. The potentials and challenges of implementing the semi-distributive matching theory framework into the wireless resource allocations are analyzed both theoretically and through implementation examples. Academics, researchers, engineers, and so on, who are interested in efficient distributive wireless resource allocation solutions, will find this book to be an exceptional resource.

Today's wireless communications and networking practices are tightly coupled with economic considerations, to the extent that it is almost impossible to make a sound technology choice without understanding the corresponding economic implications. This book aims at providing a foundational introduction on how microeconomics, and pricing theory in particular, can help us to understand and build better wireless networks. The book can be used as lecture notes for a course in the field of network economics, or a reference book for wireless engineers and applied economists to understand how pricing mechanisms influence the fast growing modern wireless industry. This book first covers the basics of wireless communication technologies and microeconomics, before going in-depth about several pricing models and their wireless applications. The pricing models include social optimal pricing, monopoly pricing, price differentiation, oligopoly pricing, and network externalities, supported by introductory discussions of convex optimization and game theory. The wireless applications include wireless video streaming, service provider competitions, cellular usage-based pricing, network partial price differentiation, wireless spectrum leasing, distributed power control, and cellular technology upgrade. More information related to the book (including references, slides, and videos) can be found at ncel.ie.cuhk.edu.hk/content/wireless-network-pricing.

Wireless Network Security Theories and Applications discusses the relevant security technologies, vulnerabilities, and potential threats, and introduces the corresponding security standards and protocols, as well as provides solutions to security concerns. Authors of each chapter in this book, mostly top researchers in relevant research fields in the U.S. and China, presented their research findings and results about the security of the following types of wireless networks: Wireless Cellular Networks, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), Bluetooth Networks and Communications, Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The audience of this book may include professors, researchers, graduate students, and professionals in the areas of Wireless Networks, Network Security and Information Security, Information Privacy and Assurance, as well as Digital Forensics. Lei Chen is an Assistant Professor at Sam Houston State University, USA; Jiahuang Ji is an Associate Professor at Sam Houston State University, USA; Zihong Zhang is a Sr. software engineer at Jacobs Technology, USA under NASA contract.