AUTOMATIC RADIO SELECTION FOR DATA TRANSFER IN DEVICE-TO-DEVICE COMMUNICATION

ABSTRACT

As technology evolves in telecommunication, the choice of the kind of radio to be used for data transfer in a multi-radio system at a particular time remains a challenge, especially in device-to-device (D2D) communications. This is evident in devices such as phones where multiple radio systems such as Bluetooth, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), and Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) are present. Despite all these radios in place, the selection of these radios has always been done manually by users which introduces delay and increase in power consumption on the device. To mitigate this, there is a need for D2D to be able to automatically select radio for data transfer based on certain criteria. One of such criteria remains area of coverage as different radios have different ranges of coverage areas. To this end, this research presents automatic radio selection for data transfer for D2D. This was used via the use of a Geo-Position Service (GPS) module, Bluetooth device, Long range (LoRa) module, and an Arduino Nano. At the  end  of  the  research,  the  radio  selection  was  possible  and  amount  of  energy consumed by the device within the period of twenty-four hours was 10%.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Device to Device (D2D) communication is a paradigm that describes a technology that is used in the trending 5G cellular network. D2D communication is a technology that enables the communication between multiple devices with or without the need of the Base Station (BS), which reduces energy consumption for devices, increasing spectrum efficiency and offload traffic from the BS. The major reason for incorporating D2D communication  in  cellular  networks  is  to  explore  the  proximity  of  devices  when engaged in local communication sessions such as media sharing, proximity-based services,  and  social  networking  (Das,  2015).  D2D  communication  is  generally not transparent to the cellular network and it occurs on the cellular frequencies (Inband) or unlicensed spectrum (Outband) (Kar and Sanyal, 2018).

In a cellular network, all communications go through the BS even when devices are in range for D2D communication. Usually, communication through the BS adapts conventional low data rate mobile services such as text messages and voice calls in which users are rarely close enough for direct communication (Kar and Sanyal, 2018). However, the mobile users of  today’s  cellular  networks  use  high  data  rate services  (gaming  app  exchange,  video sharing, proximity-aware social networking) of which could be done directly (as in D2D) if in range with the other device which it communicates with. This, therefore, saves the cost for cellular communication and increases bandwidth that aids better efficiency in the network. In other words, D2D communications can increase the spectral efficiency of the network (Jameel et al., 2018). Furthermore, D2D technology offers many advantages such as ultra-low latency communication, higher spectral efficiency. It is also considered as one of the promising techniques for 5G wireless communication networks and can be used in different fields like public safety, network traffic offloading, social services, and applications such as video streaming, gaming, and military applications (Ansari et al., 2018).

1.2 Device to Device Applications

In recent times, the need for D2D communication has been on the increase. This is because of the need to exchange information.  As a result, the application of D2D communication includes:

1.2.1   Data transfer

Today, the transfer of data is a norm. Data transfer services such as the transfer of data either in the form of apps, videos files, and audio files, which has often time been the tradition via the cellular network have been the reason for much pressure on the network. However, to reduce the pressure on the network, some of the data exchange could be done directly to another user equipment without the need for the base station if in the coverage area of the radios in the equipment. Hence D2D is applied. (Gandotra et al., 2017).

1.2.2   Internet of Things (IoT)

Today the presence of billions of things on the Internet is also a reason for the poor quality of services. There are scenarios where information between two nodes may not need the cloud and hence may not need a cellular network because of the proximity between the two nodes. However, by combining D2D with IoT, an efficient network with less pressure on the cellular network will be achieved. An example of D2D-based IoT  enhancement  is  vehicle-to-vehicle  (V2V)  communication  on  the  Internet  of Vehicles (IoV). As its moves, a vehicle can warn forthcoming vehicles using D2D of challenges on the road (Gandotra et al., 2017).

1.2.3   Emergency communication

In cases of natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, and some other abnormal situations, the cellular communication network may be limited in terms of signal strength, impeding the transfer of information which may be critical through the traditional network means. The ad-hoc network can be established via D2D between two or more user equipment to save the situation (Gandotra et al., 2017).

1.3 Architectures of D2D Communication

D2D communication is a technology that enables the communication between multiple devices with or without the involvement of network infrastructure (Kar and Sanyal, 2018). The aim of this is towards reducing energy consumption for devices, offloading traffic from the network (Burghal et al., 2017). To achieve this, there are four main types of D2D communication:

1.3.1.  Device relaying with base station-controlled link formation:

In this type of communication, a device at the edge of a cell in a poor coverage area can communicate with the BS by relaying its information via other devices. This allows the Network to achieve a higher quality of services (QoS) and aid sustainability of the battery life of the device used (Gupta et al., 2015; Tehrani et al., 2014). Figure 1.1 shows device relaying with base station-controlled link formation.

1.3.2 Direct D2D communication with based station-controlled link formation:

In this kind of D2D communication as shown in Figure 1.2, the Source and destination devices are constantly exchanging data with each other without the involvement of a BS, however, it is important to note that the communication is still supported by the BS for link formation (Gupta et al., 2015; Tehrani et al., 2014).

1.3.3. Device relaying with device-controlled link formation:

For this kind of D2D communication, the BS is not involved in link formation or communication purposes. Thus, the source and destination devices as shown in Figure

1.3 are responsible for synchronizing communication using relays among each other (Gupta et al., 2015). This eliminates the use of base station which ensures that more bandwidth which is scarce is available for other users in the network.

1.3.4. Direct D2D communication with device-controlled link formation:

D2D communication as shown in Figure 1.4 the source and destination devices directly communicate with each other without any assistance from the BS. Therefore, source and destination devices use their resources to ensure limited interference with other devices (Gupta et al., 2015; Tehrani et al., 2014).

However, among all these four methods of D2D communication, the fourth is what is adopted in this research.

Although, the requirements for the next generation of communication systems referred to as 5G, are still debated by the academics and the industry, of which fairly broad consensus has been reached pertaining few key requirements such as a 1-millisecond end to end round trip delay latency, 1000x bandwidth per unit area, 10-100x number of connected devices, up to

10 years battery life for low power/machine-type devices (Xiang et al., 2016). Apart from the inevitable increase in bit rates, energy efficiency of the system, the excessive increase of multimedia applications such as High definition (HD) movies, mobile gaming, multimedia file sharing, video conferencing, the requirements agreed to, has triggered a rapid advancement in cellular communication and its technology. As a result of that, the pressure on the cellular network is on the increase with the increase in advancements as a result of huge demands.

To aid further development and reduce pressure which increasing efficiency, one of the emerging technologies known as Device to device (D2D) communication, has been proposed by researchers to bridge the gap between communicating devices (Guo et al.,

2016). For instance, in isolated regions, the current cellular networks may offer some level of Quality-of-Service (QoS), but they cannot meet the extreme capacity demands in the future if they have to handle situations where users located near one another, such as residential environment, stadiums, shopping malls, and even open-air-festivals have to communicate on the same network. This will result in the crowding of the network with devices reducing the bandwidth and increasing poor QoS due to the pressure on the network.

Furthermore, this results in large traffic volumes having a negative impact on both the network operation, as well as pricing models (Firdose, 2017). To avert this ill, some of these devices within the coverage area of the radio in them could communicate with each other directly thus, assisting in a better network offloading. In other words, the technology involved which is D2D allows devices close to communicating using a direct link rather than having their radio signal traveling through the base station (BS) (Singh and Singh, 2018). This improves cellular coverage, increases resource utilization, and reduces latency (Jameel et al., 2018). The further benefit, however, includes ultra- low latency due to its short signal traversal path. This is achieved via the use of various short-range  wireless  technologies  like  WiFi  Direct,  Bluetooth,  and  Long  Term Evolution (LTE) defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization is often time suggested (Jameel et al., 2018; Kar and Sanyal, 2018).

However, it is important to note that these D2D supporting technologies differ in device discovery mechanisms, data rates, and coverage distance. Bluetooth as observed by (Jameel et al., 2018) supports a maximum data rate of 50Mbps and a coverage range close to 10m. WiFi Direct has a data rate of 250Mbps and a coverage range of 200m, while, LTE Direct has data rates of 13.5Mbps and a coverage range of 500m. All these mentioned   technologies   are   characterized   by   short-range   and   consume   energy. However, this may not apply to scenarios with larger coverage areas. According to (Rizzi et al., 2017) LoRa (Long Range technology) is characterized with the capability to cover 10km surpassing the already mentioned supporting D2D technologies.

Furthermore, it is observed that the D2D already in existence usually employ all these supporting technologies manually. In other words, the operator will have to select the technology to be used for communication. To improve device discovery in D2D with scenarios of large coverage area, without expending much energy and having the ability to automatically selects the technology to be used for data transfer based on the area of coverage, this research presents Automatic radio selection for data transfer in D2D.

1.4 Statement of the Research Problem

The manual selection of radio channels for data transfer in D2D has been a norm for quick and complimentary communication. Such selection process can possibly lead to delay  and  increase  in  power  consumption.  This  work  introduces  an  autonomous selection process to reduce delay and energy demand in D2D communications.

1.5 Aim and Objectives of the Study

This research aims to automate radio selection for data transfer in D2D. To achieve this, the following objectives are followed

i.     Design pair device with two radio channels built-in each device

ii.      Incorporate automatic radio selection codes into each device iii.     Evaluate the performance of the system via field test

iv.     Compare the results of manual selection with the automatic radio selection

1.6 Justification of the Research

Several kinds of research have been done on D2D devices. The aim is to reduce pressure on  the  cellular  network  which  is  characterized  by scares  bandwidth.  Among  these methods  used  Piyare  &  Tazil,  (2011) designed  a  Bluetooth-based  home automated system on a standalone Arduino Bluetooth board that was connected with the home appliances. Choi et al. (2018), used the Bluetooth contact patterns of users and the cell tower information to predict the availability of WiFi connectivity for users within the WiFi range to connect. Hayati et al. (2017), designed a system where LoRa was used for the tracking and monitoring of patients with mental disorders. However, to the best of our knowledge, no research has considered automatic selection of the radios to aid D2D communication.

1.7 Scope of the Study

The study will look at establishing an automatic radio selection for data transfer in D2D with the distance of 10km as the criteria

1.8 Thesis Outline

This thesis is structured in five (5) chapters as follows: Chapter One is the introduction, which  introduces  Device  to  Device  (D2D)  communication.  Chapter  Two  is  the Literature review that presents various existing approaches reached by other researchers to achieve device discovery. Chapter Three presents the Research Methodology and how the aim and objectives of this research were carried out. Chapter Four is the presentation of the results. Chapter Five is Conclusion and Recommendations.

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