Software-defined architecture for mobile cloud in device-to-device communication

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication enables direct communication between nearby user devices using cellular or ad hoc links thereby improving the spectrum utilization, system throughput, and energy efficiency of the network. Exploiting mobile cloud based D2D communication architecture underlying LTE cellular network has a huge importance in reducing the transmission power of the UEs resulting an improved battery life. This paper proposes a novel hybrid D2D communication architecture where a centralized Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controller communicates with the cloud head (CH) in order to reduce the number of LTE communication links thereby improving energy consumption. In addition, UEs can participate and perform operations in multiple clouds simultaneously. The obtained simulation results confirm improved energy efficiency as compared to the legacy LTE network.