Modeling Network-Controlled Device-to-Device Communications in SimuLTE.

Area of Science:

• Wireless Communication Systems
• Telecommunications Engineering
• Computer Simulation and Modeling

Background:

• Network-controlled device-to-device (D2D) communication in Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) enables direct UE-to-UE data transfer, managed by the Evolved Node-B for resource allocation.
• This paradigm promises reduced latency and increased network resource efficiency, supporting services like machine-to-machine and vehicular communications.
• Simulating D2D features presents computational challenges, necessitating efficient modeling to evaluate performance impacts on applications and protocols.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the modeling of network-controlled D2D communications within the SimuLTE simulation library for LTE-A.
• To demonstrate how SimuLTE's core design facilitates easy extension for D2D capabilities.
• To analyze the computational efficiency of the D2D modeling approach and its impact on simulation complexity.

Main Methods:

• Development and implementation of D2D communication models in SimuLTE, a system-level LTE-A simulator based on OMNeT++.
• Detailed modeling of D2D-specific issues including scheduling with frequency reuse, connection mode switching, and broadcast transmission.
• Evaluation of computational efficiency by comparing D2D simulation complexity against classical cellular communication simulations.

Main Results:

• The developed SimuLTE models allow for efficient simulation of network-controlled D2D communications, with computational complexity comparable to cellular communications of similar scale.
• Estimating the Sidelink channel quality emerged as the most computationally intensive aspect of D2D simulations.
• SimuLTE effectively evaluates the interplay between D2D communication and end-to-end performance for UDP and TCP services, assessing interference model accuracy and speed-accuracy trade-offs.

Conclusions:

• SimuLTE provides an efficient and extensible platform for simulating network-controlled D2D communications in LTE-A networks.
• The modeling approach ensures that simulating D2D does not introduce prohibitive computational overhead.
• The simulation environment is suitable for analyzing D2D performance, including its impact on higher-layer protocols and services.