Distributed pricing‐based resource allocation for dense device‐to‐device communications in beyond 5G networks

Considering the dramatic increase of data rate demand in beyond fifth generation (5G) networks due to the numerous transmitting nodes, dense device‐to‐device (D2D) communications where multiple D2D pairs can simultaneously reuse a cellular link can be considered as a communication paradigm for future wireless networks. Since distributed methods can be more practical compared to complex centralized schemes, we propose a low‐complexity distributed pricing‐based resource allocation algorithm to allocate power to cellular user equipments (CUEs) and D2D pairs constrained to the minimum quality‐of‐service (QoS) requirements of CUEs and D2D pairs in two phases. The price of each link is set by the base station (BS). CUEs and D2D pairs maximize their rate‐and‐interference‐dependent utility function by adjusting their power in the first phase, while the price of each link is updated at the BS based on the minimum QoS requirements of CUEs and D2D pairs in the second phase. The proposed utility function controls D2D admission, hence it is suitable for dense scenarios. The proposed method is fast due to the closed‐form solution for the first phase power allocation. Numerical results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for practical dense beyond 5G scenarios by allocating resources to multiple D2D pairs and taking advantage of the spatial reuse gain of D2D pairs. Furthermore, the utility function definition is discussed to illustrate its effectiveness for SE maximization. Finally, the SE of the proposed method is compared to other centralized and distributed algorithms to demonstrate the higher sum‐rate performance of the proposed algorithm. We propose a low‐complexity, effective, practical, and distributed resource allocation algorithm for dense D2D communications considering the large number of transmitting nodes in beyond 5G networks. We introduce an innovative utility function, a closed‐form solution, a novel D2D admission criterion, and a pricing‐based BS‐assisted QoS control mechanism.