Energy efficient resource and power allocation for uplink underlay D2D communication in HetNet-based 5G network

Nagarajan and Mohamad J Wireless Com Network (2025) 2025:24 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13638-025-02452-1 EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking Open Access RESEARCH Energy efficient resource and power allocation for uplink underlay D2D communication in HetNet‑based 5G network Rajkumar Nagarajan1 and Noor Mohammed Vali Mohamad1*    *Correspondence: 1 School of Electronics Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India Abstract Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is a revolutionary technique to enhance the data rate, spectrum efficiency and energy efficiency in wireless network. It is important to have this technique due to the high demand of users and spectrum scarcity. Each D2D users can share the resource of the cellular user and transmit power of the user can create an interference to the user sharing the same resource. So, there needs a mechanism to govern the power and effectively allocate the resource to mitigate the interference created by sharing of resource between users. In this paper, D2D communication and small cells are introduced to form the Heterogeneous Network (HetNet). We propose a Sequential High Throughput Claim algorithm (SHTCA) to allocate resources to the D2D users such that Quality of Service (QoS) of the cellular users are maintained by applying the interference threshold to the cellular users. This provides the best throughput to the D2D users. Transmit power of the D2D and cellular users are optimized using the Genetic Algorithm (GA) such that interference between D2D and cellular users is effectively handled. The proposed work is differentiated over other existing algorithms and outcomes are compared in terms of energy efficiency, throughput and battery utilization in the network. Keywords: D2D communication, QoS, Genetic algorithm, HetNet, Throughput, Energy efficiency 1 Introduction With high demand of seamless data services to the users, Fifth Generation (5G) needs to have a modified technology that will enable the high energy efficiency, more spectrum availability and high data rate to the users [1–3]. To achieve these requirements, important technologies include device-to-device (D2D) communication, massive multipleinput multiple-output (massive MIMO) and Heterogeneous Networks (HetNet) [4, 5]. D2D communication has become an emerging technology that facilitates direct interaction among nearby users without depending on cellular infrastructure. Lately, this technology has garnered substantial attention for its potential to improve network efficiency, lower power consumption and optimize spectrum utilization [6, 7]. One of the main obstacles in device-to-device (D2D) communication is efficiently allocating resources, © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Nagarajan and Mohamad J Wireless Com Network (2025) 2025:24 such as spectrum and power, among devices to boost system performance. This task is particularly complex due to the dynamic wireless environment [8, 9]. The key enabling technology is to have the heterogeneous network where small cells are deployed along with the D2D communication. In an underlay D2D environment, Resource Block (RB) of cellular user equipment (CUE) is shared to D2D pairs to make the D2D communication possible. In this way, D2D communication happens without the involvement of evolved NodeB (eNB). This capability opens up avenues for diverse applications such as cellular offloading, public safety communication, gaming, local commercial advertisement, content distribution, relaying, etc. [10, 11]. Also, thorough explanation about the Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) and its future trends are covered in [12] . In cellular networks, maintaining direct connections between D2D pairs relies heavily on effective radio resource allocation. To optimize this process, it’s essential to have complete insights into both cellular and D2D links [13]. While assessing cellular link quality is manageable, evaluating the channel quality between D2D devices plays significant role. This underscores the importance of developing resource allocation algorithms that can operate solely based on cellular link quality information. 2 Methods/experimental The primary objective of D2D resource allocation in HetNet is to reuse cellular resources to enhance spectrum efficiency and improve the overall system performance. However, a major challenge in D2D communication is tackling the interference between D2D and cellular users. Another key challenge is power allocation, which plays a crucial role in improving the system’s energy efficiency and extending the battery life of the users. To address these challenges, we propose the SHTCA algorithm which allocates cellular resources to D2D pairs through a sequential search-based approach while maintaining the Quality of Service for cellular users. This ensures optimal throughput for D2D users. Also, we employ a genetic algorithm for power allocation to effectively mitigate interference between D2D and cellular users. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm achieves superior throughput and energy efficiency, while also reducing the power consumption. Comparative results with existing methods validate that our algorithm outperforms these approaches in terms of system performance and energy efficiency. 3 Related works Many resource allocation techniques are available to minimize the interference and increase the system performance. In [14], optimized resource allocation for D2D communication to reduce the interference and increase the network performance in terms of throughput is done using mixed integer non-linear programming concept. A reverse iterative combinatorial auction method for resource and power allocation for D2D users has been formulated to increase the energy efficiency of the system, as discussed in [15]. The mechanism introduced in [16] utilizes a Stackelberg game framework for allocating power and resources to D2D users, resulting in an enhanced system throughput. In [17], a distance-based resource allocation strategy is proposed for D2D users to alleviate Page 2 of 22 Nagarajan and Mohamad (...truncated)