Smart Direct-LTE communication: An energy saving perspective

Direct-LTE communication underlying a cellular infrastructure, or more commonly known as device to device (D2D), is discussed in this paper. When enabling D2D communication in the system, one can see several benefits compared to the conventional infrastructure based communication, such as improved energy efficiency, increased overall system throughput and decreased traffic load in the network. The aim of this paper is to give an energy efficiency perspective of D2D communication to assist all major mobile stakeholders to perceive the benefits when facilitating D2D communication in the network. This paper is tutorial in nature, initially elaborating on the fundamental concept surrounding D2D communication towards technical perspective, business opportunities and open challenges when considering deployment. Furthermore, a simulation study of a typical D2D use case is carried out that includes the energy efficiency perspective; we use 3GPP Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) as a baseline technology and candidate for launching D2D communications.