Intelligent resource management for device-to-device (D2D) communications in heterogeneous networks

Device-to-device (D2D) communications and femtocell systems are the key technology in the 4G LTE-A. Both D2D and femtocell systems can offload the traffic from macrocell systems, improve the spectrum efficiency, and benefit both mobile users and operators. However, the complicated three-tier interference (i.e., macro-to-device/device-to-macro, femto-to-device/device-to-femto, and device-to-device interference) is the challenging issue in the heterogeneous macro/femto/D2D networks. In this paper, we propose a networkassisted device-controlled method to intelligently manage the devices' resource in the D2D femtocell network. Based on the specific information broadcast by macrocell and the femtocell base stations, the D2D pairs can effectively and autonomously jointly select the suitable resource blocks and adjust the power to guarantee the signal quality of all users. Simulation results show that the proposed method can simultaneously improve the system throughput and service quality.