An overview of 3GPP device-to-device proximity services

TLDR

Device‑to‑device communication, slated for LTE in 3GPP Release 12, promises improved spectrum efficiency, throughput, and energy use while enabling new peer‑to‑peer and location‑based services, but also introduces challenges to the base‑station‑centric cellular architecture. The paper aims to review 3GPP D2D standardization, highlight remaining technical challenges, and distill best practices for designing a D2D‑enabled LTE air interface. The authors survey 3GPP D2D standardization, analyze evaluation studies, and compile design guidelines for a D2D‑enabled LTE air interface. The study finds that D2D‑enabled LTE devices can serve as a viable fallback for public‑safety networks when conventional cellular infrastructure is unavailable.

Abstract

Device-to-device communication is likely to be added to LTE in 3GPP Release 12. In principle, exploiting direct communication between nearby mobile devices will improve spectrum utilization, overall throughput, and energy consumption, while enabling new peer-to-peer and location-based applications and services. D2D-enabled LTE devices can also become competitive for fallback public safety networks, which must function when cellular networks are not available or fail. Introducing D2D poses many challenges and risks to the long-standing cellular architecture, which is centered around the base station. We provide an overview of D2D standardization activities in 3GPP, identify outstanding technical challenges, draw lessons from initial evaluation studies, and summarize "best practices" in the design of a D2D-enabled air interface for LTE-based cellular networks.