Distributed resource allocation for D2D communication underlaying cellular networks

In the paper, the distributed joint spectrum sharing and power allocation scheme is proposed to improve the local services in the Device-to-Device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular networks (CNs) with limited signaling overhead. The scheme aims to optimize the throughput of D2D communications over the shared uplink frequency spectrum meanwhile the base station (BS) protects the cellular users (CUs) from the interference of D2D users. Stackelberg game (SG) is formulated to model the problem for deriving the distributed scheme. In the game, the BS, as a leader, coordinates the interference from the D2D users to the cellular uplinks and maximizes its own profit by pricing the interference. On the other hand, D2D pairs, as followers, compete for the spectrum as a Nash non-cooperative game to maximize their own data rates individually. The pricing mechanism at the BS converging to the Stackelberg Equilibrium is studied. Finally, numerical examples are presented to verify the proposed scheme. It is shown that the scheme is effective on the resource allocation and the CU protection with limited signaling overhead.