D2D Multicast in Underlay Cellular Networks with Exclusion Zones

Underlay device-to-device (D2D) multicast communication has potential to improve performance of cellular networks. However, co-channel interference among cellular users (CUs) and D2D multicast groups (MGs) limits the gains of such communication. Allowing the CUs to have exclusion zones around them where no receiver of any MG can exist, is a realistic and pragmatic approach to reduce the co-channel interference of cellular transmission on D2D multicast reception. We use a stochastic geometry based approach to model this scenario. Specifically, we model the locations of CUs and D2D MG receivers with homogeneous Poisson Point Process (PPP), and Poisson Hole Process (PHP), respectively. We formulate the network sum throughput maximization problem in terms of a joint MG channel and power allocation problem with constraints on cellular and MG users maximum transmit and acceptable quality of service. We establish that the MG channel allocation problem has computational complexity that is exponential in both, the number of MGs and the number of available cellular channels. Then, we decompose this problem into two subproblems: subset selection problem and subset channel assignment problem. Based on observations and insights obtained from numerical analysis of the optimal solution of the subset selection problem in wide variety of scenarios, we propose a computationally efficient scheme that achieves almost optimal performance for the subset selection problem. We further provide a computationally efficient algorithm that achieves almost optimal performance for the subset channel assignment problem. Finally, combining these two schemes, we provide a computationally efficient and almost optimal scheme to solve the channel allocation problem, and various results and insights on the variation of the optimal system performance with respect to different system parameters