Vicknesan Ayadurai

Software radio platform for network-assisted device-to-device (NA-D2D) concepts

This paper describes a small-scale software radio platform that has been developed and implemented to investigate the new mobile network concept of Network-Assisted Device-to-Device (NA-D2D) communications. The implementation includes mechanisms for mode selection, direct-link quality estimation, and resource allocation. We show that significant benefits were reaped from this real-world implementation despite the relatively simplistic scenario emulated by our indoor laboratory setup. Apart from the obvious advantages of testing the concept over a real wireless medium with its associated physical characteristics, other unforeseen factors were also uncovered. Asymmetries in radio channels, variations in supposedly identical node hardware, and timing issues, were just some of the experiences encountered and fed back into the research design process which resulted in significant refinements and improvements made to the mechanisms and algorithms of the NA-D2D communications concept studied.