Solving the data overload: Device-to-device bearer control architecture for cellular data offloading

The explosive growth of the mobile user population and multimedia services are causing a severe traffic overload problem in the cellular network. The Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has defined data offloading as a critical area to cope with this problem. Local IP access (LIPA) and selected IP traffic offload (SIPTO) are considered to be the typical technologies to implement cellular data offloading. Currently, device-to-device (D2D) communication has been proposed as a new dataoffloading solution. The D2D communication underlying a cellular infrastructure reduces the radio access network load as well as the core network load. The cellular network needs to establish a new type of radio bearer for D2D communications, and this bearer can provide the direct traffic path between devices. In this article, we propose a D2D bearer control architecture for D2D communications supported by a longterm evolution-advanced (LTE-A) infrastructure. This could be a feasible and efficient solution for offloading data from the cellular network.