Multi-cell Interference Management in In-band D2D Communication under LTE-A Network

Abstract

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is an active research area. As a part of this active research area, Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is largely exploited in Out-band non-cellular technologies, such as, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi network. However, it has not been fully incorporated into existing cellular networks. Interference management is the main challenge of this technology as it generates both intra and inter-cell interference resulting in severe network performance degradation. eNodeBs with high transmit power usually affects D2D user equipments (UEs) with high interference. It usually incurs severe interference to the cellular UEs and to the base station (eNB). The scenario becomes more critical in case of multi-cell environment, which is the main research focus in this paper. In order to encourage and increase frequent use of D2D communications, some changes in the network configuration are required for today’s networking scenario. Flexible multi-cell D2D communication is required to reduce the network load. Interference management techniques are necessary in parallel to make the communication smooth, efficient and effective.This paper reviews multi-cell interference in In-Band D2D communications and investigates interference mitigation techniques in scenarios where two or more similar or different devices under same eNB or from two different eNBs can be connected as a D2D pair without compromising user experience and quality of service standard. These issues cannot be guaranteed by the current applications operated on unlicensed frequency band. The research also addresses the following related issues: mode selection, resource allocation (both for cellular and D2D environment), power control (both for eNB and D2D pair), and flexible frequency allocation techniques. The research aims to look at other issues, such as, achieving high SINR, improved system capacity, better throughput and transmission rate.