Improving the Spectral Efficiency in Dense Heterogeneous Networks Using D2D-Assisted eICIC

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) that consist of macro base stations (MBSs) and small base stations (SBSs) are a key architectural drive for achieving the high spectral efficiency (SE) in 5G and beyond. Moreover, device-to-device (D2D) communications underlaying mobile networks can provide reliable communications and add SE gains. A major challenge in HetNets is the inter-cell interference (ICI) due to the coexistence of multiple tiers of base stations (BSs). To tackle this challenge, the enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) scheme was adopted by 3GPP. In eICIC the MBSs mute their transmission during the so-called “almost blank subframes” (ABS). This muting strategy causes resources reduction to the MBS users (MUEs). We propose the use of D2D communications to forward the transmission from the SBS to the MUEs during ABS subframes, by using inactive UEs to relay the downlink transmission, when the destination UEs are outside the coverage of the BS. We use a heuristic resource allocation (RA) algorithm based on the traffic load at the SBSs that integrates eICIC with D2D communications to avoid the service degradation during the time-domain muting. Simulation results of a HetNet with D2D-eICIC show that the SE of our approach outperforms other interference management approaches.