Reliable Multicast D2D Communication Over Multiple Channels in Underlay Cellular Networks

Multicast device-to-device (D2D) communications operating underlay with cellular networks is a spectral efficient technique for disseminating data to the nearby receivers. However, due to critical challenges such as, mitigating mutual interference and unavailability of perfect channel state information (CSI), the resource allocation to multicast groups needs significant attention. In this work, we present a framework for joint channel assignment and power allocation strategy to maximize the sum rate of the combined network. The proposed framework allows access of multiple channels to the multicast groups, thus improving the achievable rate of the individual groups. Furthermore, fairness in allocating resources to the multicast groups is also ensured by augmenting the objective with a penalty function. In addition, considering imperfect CSI, the framework guarantees to provide rate above a specified outage for all the users. The formulated problem is a mixed integer nonconvex program which requires exponential complexity to obtain the optimal solution. To tackle this, we first introduce auxiliary variables to decouple the original problem into smaller power allocation problems and a channel assignment problem. Next, with the aid of fractional programming via a quadratic transformation, we obtain an efficient power allocation solution by alternating optimization. The solution for channel assignment is obtained by convex relaxation of integer constraints. Finally, we demonstrate the merit of the proposed approach by simulations, showing a higher and a more robust network throughput.