Efficient Data Uploading Supported by D2D Communications in LTE-A Systems

The reference scenario in this paper is a single cell in a Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) system, where multiple user equipments (UEs) aim at uploading some data to a central server or to the Cloud. The traditional uploading technique used in cellular systems, i.e., with separate links from each UE to the eNodeB, is compared to innovative relay-based schemes that exploit Device-to-Device (D2D) communications between two (or more) UEs in proximity to each other. Differences in the channel quality experienced by the UEs offer an opportunity to develop D2D-based solutions, where (i) the UE with a poor direct link to the eNodeB will forward data to a nearby UE over a high-quality D2D link; and (ii) the receiving UE then uploads its own generated data and the relayed data to the eNodeB over a good uplink channel. A straightforward gain in the data uploading time can be obtained for the first UE. To extend the benefits, also to the relaying UE, enhanced D2D-based solutions are proposed that decrease the uploading time of this UE based on the cooperative sharing of the resources allocated by the eNodeB to the cooperating devices. Finally, preliminary results are also presented for a multihop study case, where a chain of devices exploits D2D communications to upload data to the eNodeB.