Interference-based Clustering for MIMO D2D Underlay Communications

Clustering of Device-to-Device (D2D) pairs with cellular transmissions is particularly challenging to manage interference in future fifth generation networks. D2D pairs should coexist with cellular users in underlay scenario, taking advantage of frequency and spatial dimensions. We consider a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) channel where all users (whether cellular or devices) are equipped with N > 1 antennas, and the Base Station (BS) has M ≥ N antennas. Interference between D2D pairs, between D2D transmitters and the BS and between cellular users and D2D receivers is then managed by determining clusters of D2D pairs and cellular users with very low relative interference levels. Clusters are obtained after graph-coloring on a pairwise interference-leakage based matrix. Then, several Resource Blocks (RB) allocation algorithms are proposed, with various fairness levels. A final orthogonalization step using Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) may be added at the BS in order to further reduce interference. Simulation results show very large D2D data rates improvements, while cellular data rates degradation due to interference can be controlled.