Spectrum Sharing Scheme Between Cellular Users and Ad-hoc Device-to-Device Users

Abstract

In an attempt to utilize spectrum resources more efficiently, protocols sharing licensed spectrum with unlicensed users are receiving increased attention. From the perspective of cellular networks, spectrum underutilization makes spatial reuse a feasible complement to existing standards. Interference management is a major component in designing these schemes as it is critical that licensed users maintain their expected quality of service. We develop a distributed dynamic spectrum protocol in which ad-hoc device-to-device users opportunistically access the spectrum actively in use by cellular users. First, channel gain estimates are used to set feasible transmit powers for device-to-device users that keeps the interference they cause within the allowed interference temperature. Then network information is distributed by route discovery packets in a random access manner to help establish either a single-hop or multi-hop route between two device-to-device users. We show that network information in the discovery packet can decrease the failure rate of the route discovery and reduce the number of necessary transmissions to find a route. Using the found route, we show that two device-to-device users can communicate with a low probability of outage while only minimally affecting the cellular network, and can achieve significant power savings when communicating directly with each other instead of utilizing the cellular base station.