Wireless resource virtualization with device-to-device communication underlaying LTE network

Wireless resource virtualization is a potential solution for meeting the increasing demand for mobile data services. Virtualization allows for more efficient utilization of the spectrum, reduces capital expenditures and operating expenditures, and can support higher peak rates. Device-to-device (D2D) communication as an underlay to cellular networks is also a potential solution to satisfy the data demand. Due to the proximity of devices and thus the higher signal-to-interference and noise ratio, higher data rates can be achieved using D2D communication. This is beneficial in cases of multimedia sharing where data can be broadcast to several nearby users. However, the interference that D2D pairs introduce to cellular users should be below a target threshold so as not to reduce their performance. In this paper, the problem of wireless resource virtualization with D2D communication underlaying the LTE network is formulated. Since the problem is an integer non-linear programming problem, it is divided into two smaller linear integer programs that are solved to optimality. Two lower complexity heuristic algorithms, each solving one of the subproblems are introduced. Results show that the heuristic achieves close to optimal results while having a much lower computational complexity.