A Survey of Device-to-Device Communications: Research Issues and Challenges

TLDR

Device‑to‑Device communication exploits proximity to boost spectral efficiency, data rates, and capacity while reducing latency, and the research community is actively exploring its integration into future cellular networks, though existing surveys mainly address interference and resource management. This survey reviews recent solutions across both well‑studied and under‑explored D2D areas and outlines potential future research directions. The reviewed solutions comprise protocols, algorithms, and architectural designs, and the authors offer new insights into open issues within these domains.

Abstract

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication has emerged as a promising technology for optimizing spectral efficiency in future cellular networks. D2D takes advantage of the proximity of communicating devices for efficient utilization of available resources, improving data rates, reducing latency, and increasing system capacity. The research community is actively investigating the D2D paradigm to realize its full potential and enable its smooth integration into the future cellular system architecture. Existing surveys on this paradigm largely focus on interference and resource management. We review recently proposed solutions in over explored and under explored areas in D2D. These solutions include protocols, algorithms, and architectures in D2D. Furthermore, we provide new insights on open issues in these areas. Finally, we discuss potential future research directions.