D2D communication architecture under full control using SDN

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is a potential solution to the incessant increase in data traffic on cellular networks. The greatest problem is how to control the interference between D2D users and cellular mobile users, and between D2D users themselves. This paper proposes a solution for this issue by putting the full control privilege in cellular network using the software-defined networking (SDN) concept. A software virtual switch called Open vSwitch and several components are integrated into mobile devices for data forwarding and radio resource mapping, whereas the control functions are executed in the cellular network via a SDN controller. This allows the network to assign radio resources for D2D communication directly, thus reducing interference. This solution also brings out many benefits, including resource efficiency, energy saving, topology flexibility, etc. The advantages and disadvantages of this architecture are analyzed by both a mathematical method and a simple implementation. The result shows that implementation of this solution in the next generation of cellular networks is feasible.