Enabling Relay-Assisted D2D Communication for Cellular Networks: Algorithm and Protocols

Recently, there is a growing emphasis on device-to-device (D2D) communication, which is the key component of the Internet-of-Things ecosystem. D2D communication can operate on the licensed spectrum of cellular networks so as to improve the spectrum utilization. In this paper, we focus on the resource allocation problem for general multihop D2D communication and introduce users' mobility into D2D communication underlaying cellular networks. Maximizing the total end-to-end data rate involves complex tasks, such as resource allocation and routing. By leveraging on the square tessellation technique, we propose an efficient square-division-based resource allocation scheme. Furthermore, we design a relay-assisted D2D communication protocol that addresses the challenges in enabling multihop D2D communications, namely, spectrum resource allocation, users' mobility, and relay incentive. Through extensive simulations, we show that our relay-assisted D2D communication protocol improves the system throughput up to 55% and the user access rate up to four times in typical scenarios, as compared with state-of-the-art schemes.