Distributed coalition-based resource orchestration for heterogeneous IoT devices in metropolitan smart cities

The rapid proliferation of IoT devices in metropolitan environments poses critical challenges for heterogeneous device management under minimal centralized control. This paper presents DCRO, a Distributed Coalition-based Resource Orchestration framework enabling IoT devices to self-organize into dynamic coalitions for cooperative resource management. Unlike traditional hierarchical approaches that suffer from scalability bottlenecks, DCRO integrates three core components: a Self-Organizing Device Clustering Algorithm (SODCA) that adapts to topology changes without global coordination; a Game-Theoretic Coalition Formation Mechanism (GT-CFM) that drives fair resource allocation through Shapley value-based negotiation; and a Lightweight Hierarchical Consensus Protocol (LHCP) coupled with a Merkle-DAG security architecture that ensures tamper-resistant coordination without blockchain overhead. Experiments across three metropolitan testbeds demonstrate 26.2% latency reduction and 31.4% energy savings over centralized baselines, only 11.3% throughput degradation under continuous fault injection, and stable coalition convergence at 5,000 devices within 15 iterations.