Context-aware Cluster Based Device-to-Device Communication to Serve Machine Type Communications

TL;DR

This paper proposes a context-aware D2D communication scheme to enhance the battery life and reliability of Machine Type Communication devices in next-generation wireless networks, supported by system-level simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel context-aware D2D approach with signaling schemes for MTC devices, improving network efficiency and device longevity.

Findings

Significant performance gains demonstrated through simulations.

Enhanced battery life and reliability for MTC devices.

Effective use of context information for D2D communication.

Abstract

Billions of Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices are foreseen to be deployed in next ten years and therefore potentially open a new market for next generation wireless network. However, MTC applications have different characteristics and requirements compared with the services provided by legacy cellular networks. For instance, an MTC device sporadically requires to transmit a small data packet containing information generated by sensors. At the same time, due to the massive deployment of MTC devices, it is inefficient to charge their batteries manually and thus a long battery life is required for MTC devices. In this sense, legacy networks designed to serve human-driven traffics in real time can not support MTC efficiently. In order to improve the availability and battery life of MTC devices, context-aware device-to-device (D2D) communication is exploited in this paper. By applying D2D communication, some MTC users can serve as relays for other MTC users who experience bad channel conditions. Moreover, signaling schemes are also designed to enable the collection of context information and support the proposed D2D communication scheme. Last but not least, a system level simulator is implemented to evaluate the system performance of the proposed technologies and a large performance gain is shown by the numerical results.