Mode selection considering fairness in D2D‐enabled cellular networks

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the problem of mode selection, resource allocation, and power control for device‐to‐device (D2D) communications in cellular networks. We propose optimization frameworks based on max‐min fairness and proportional fairness where cellular and D2D links share the cellular resources. The optimization problem is solved in different resource sharing modes (ie, cellular, overlay, and underlay), and the mode leading to the highest optimal value is selected in the system. We further propose a two‐stage mode selection scheme based on channel quality in which the resource partitioning is expressed in closed form. We compare the performance of the proposed schemes with that of optimization framework based on sum‐rate and no‐mode selection scheme. The numerical results indicate that cellular and D2D links achieve higher rates in proportional fairness and max‐min fairness schemes compared to no‐mode selection scheme. While the rate improvement of D2D link is more significant in sum‐rate optimization, the cellular link may achieve lower rate in this scheme compared to other methods including the no‐mode selection scheme. The results also reveal that the rates of cellular and D2D links in channel quality scheme can vary within the range of rates obtained in max‐min and sum‐rate optimization frameworks.