Fractional Frequency Reuse Scheme for

Interference Mitigation in Device-to-Device

Communication Underlying LTE-A Networks
Devarani Devi Ningombam1 , Jae-Young Pyun2 , Suk-Seung Hwang3 , and Seokjoo Shin1*
1,1*
Department of Computer Engineering
2
Department of Information and Communication Engineering
3
Department of Electronics Engineering
Chosun University
309 Pilmun-daero, Dong-gu,Gwangju 501-759, Republic of Korea
devaraninin@gmail.com, {jypyun, hwangss, sjshin}@chosun.ac.kr

Abstract—Device-to-Device (D2D) communication provides
high data rate requirements within the available access network
and is viewed as a promising solution for the increasing mobile
data traffic. D2D communication carries out direct communica-
tion for users located in close proximity to each other, without
passing through the eNB. However, integration of D2D com-
munication in cellular network introduces technical challenges
like interference among cellular users and D2D pairs, and D2D
pairs and eNB for the uplink cellular system which deteriorates
the system performance. In this paper, we propose a distance-
based throughput optimization method for D2D communications
in a sectored multicell system using fractional frequency reuse
(FFR) method. The simulation results show that our proposed
scheme significantly improves system performance by mitigating
interference.
Index Terms—D2D, resource allocation, fractional frequency
reuse, sectorization
I. I NTRODUCTION
The invariably increasing demand for smart devices com-
munication increases mobile data traffic. Device-to-Device
(D2D) communication is a radio access technology that allows
users to communicate close proximity devices directly, without
traversing data traffic through the base station also known
as evolved NodeB (eNB). In the conventional uplink cellular
network without D2D communication, all communications
take place through the base station. The goals of introducing
D2D communication are improving system spectral efficiency
by reusing the uplink cellular resources, reducing communi-
cation delay and improving system capacity. The main benefit
of reusing uplink cellular resources by the D2D pairs is
that eNB can efficiently accommodate interference between
cellular users and D2D pairs. However, integration of D2D
communication generates interference to the existing cellular
network.
In literature, a number of studies proposed in order to
overcome this issue. In [1], Fractional frequency reuse (FFR)
method is discussed which enables reusing the cellular fre-
quency to enable simultaneous transmission demands, thus
improves system capacity. In FFR method, the cellular cov-
erage region is divided into two non-overlapping regions,
namely inner and outer cell region [2], [5]. Range based D2D
communications in the uplink cellular networks to mitigate
interference from the cellular users and also from D2D pairs
is discussed in [3]. Transmission power control for both
cellular users and D2D pairs based on their locations is
presented in [4]. The authors prove that their proposed scheme
provides better performance as compared to the conventional
resource allocation. Multiple channel allocation to D2D pairs
is proposed in [7] and shows that the proposed scheme can
improve system throughput to a large extent
In this paper, we propose a partitioned FFR scheme in
which both the cell regions are sectored into three equally
dimensional sectors using directional antennas. Each cell in a
partitioned FFR access whole frequency band thus making sys-
tem spectral efficiency. Moreover, by sectorizing cell regions
can overcome co-channel interference and reduce inter-symbol
interference. This paper focused on both the cellular users and
D2D pairs which are interfered by the co-channel users and
neighboring users. In the proposed scheme, a D2D pair in the
inner cell region can reuse single cellular link of the outer
cell region and vice versa. However, reusing the cellular link
by the D2D pair in the same cell region is prohibited. We
formulate the optimization problem to maximize the system
total throughput by considering require signal-to-interference-
plus-noise ratio (SINR) and the simulation is performed using
Monte-Carlo simulation.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section
II, we present the system model. Problem formulation is
presented in Section III. Performance analysis is given in
Section IV. Section V concluded the paper.
II. S YSTEM M ODEL
The regular multi-cell hexagonal structure of cells is consid-
ered in this paper. In each hexagonal cell, the eNB is placed
at cell center and have equal distance from each other. We
supposed that there are totally N cellular users and M D2D
users exist in a cell constituting two sets, C = 1, 2, ..., N and
D = 1, 2, .., M respectively. Both the users are distributed
randomly inside the cell. Furthermore, the cellular users and

978-1-5386-1823-3/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 1402 Asilomar 2017

D2D users are categorized into four groups, namely Cin , the probability density function of a cellular user in polar
Cout , Din and Dout . Cin and Cout are the cellular users coordinates is expressed as below [8].
existed in cell inner and outer region, and Din , Dout are For outer cell region
the D2D users located in cell inner and outer region. To 2(hC − hS )
restrict the interference generated due to the introduction of f (hC ) = , hS ≤ hC ≤ R (1)
(R − hS )2
D2D communication in a cellular network, we assume that
one D2D pair can reuse only one cellular resource, and D2D For inner cell region
pairs is not allowed to reuse the resource of cellular users 2(hc − hS )
in the identical cell region. The interference scenario in an f (hc ) = , hS ≤ hc ≤ r (2)
(r − hS )2
uplink cellular network is shown in Fig. 1. So in order to
and
1 3
f (θC ) = = , 0 ≤ θC ≤ 2π (3)
( 2π
3 ) 2π
where hS is the shortest distance between cellular user and
eNB, R is the radius of the outer cell and r is the radius of
the inner cell.
III. P ROBLEM F ORMULATION
In an uplink cellular network, the eNB receives a signal
from the cellular user and the D2D receiver receives a signal
from the D2D transmitter. Subsequently, D2D receiver suffers
from interference caused by the cellular transmitter and eNB
is interfered by the signal transmitted from D2D transmitter.
Therefore to maintain a reliable transmission, D2D pairs are
Fig. 1. Interference scenario in a cellular network while reusing uplink cellular allowed to set up communication only when they achieve the
resource by the D2D user.
require minimum SINR. Thus, the received SINR for both user
reduce the interference, the optimal resource allocation based is expressed as below.
on the minimizing overall interference by considering SINR A. Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio(SINR)
and power control scheme is proposed in this paper. With
We supposed that in inner cell region D2D transmitter j
an aim of maximizing the total system throughput of both 0
communicates with D2D receiver j by reusing the resource of
inner region and outer region users, our proposed scheme
cellular user l. Similarly, in outer cell region D2D transmitter k
adjusts the transmission power of each of user according to its 0
communicates with D2D receiver k by reusing the resource of
available channel condition. The spectrum partitioning using
cellular user i. The eNB is denoted as B for analysis purpose.
0
The interference to the user i and user j in the inner cell
region is expressed as
2
X α(β−1) 0
Ii = Pi0 Ai0 ,B | Gi0 ,B |2 , ∀i ∈ Cin (4)
i0 =1
2
X α(β−1) 0
Ij 0 = Pm Am,j 0 | Gm,j 0 |2 , ∀m, j ∈ Din (5)
Fig. 2. Partitioned spectrum using FFR scheme. m=1 6
X
In = Ie (6)
FFR scheme is shown in Fig. 2. Figure shows that the avail- e=1
able frequency band is exclusively divided into inner region
where In is the interference from the neighboring cells.
frequency (FI ) and outer region frequency (FO ). Furthermore,
The corresponding SINR received by the cellular user and
the inner and outer cell frequencies are divided into three equal
D2D user can be expressed as
sub-frequencies namely, FI,0 ,FI,1 and FI,2 , and FO,0 , FO,1
and FO,2 , respectively. The inner cell region users are less
α(β−1)
affected by the co-channel interference from the neighboring Pi Ai,B | Gi,B |2
cells as they are near to the eNB. But, the users located in the γCin = α(β−1)
, ∀i ∈ Cin , k ∈ Dout (7)
PN +Pk Ak,B | Gk,B |2 +Ii
cell outer region are affected by the co-channel interference
α(β−1)
from the neighboring cells which distorts their performance. In | Gj,j 0 |2
Pj Aj,j 0 0
this paper, we defined the location of the uniformly distributed γDin = α(β−1)
, ∀j, j ∈ Din ,l ∈ Cout
cellular user in terms of polar coordinates with an angle of ΘC PN +Pl Al,j 0 | Gl,j 0 |2 +Ij 0 +In
and distance of the cellular user from the eNB, hC . Therefore, (8)

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 0
Similarly, the interference to the user l and user k in the B. Outage Probability Analysis
cell outer region is expressed as The outage probability for cellular user and D2D user is
2 formulated as
X α(β−1) 0
Il = Pl0 Al0 ,B | Gl0 ,B |2 , ∀l ∈ Cout (9) For inner cell user
l0 =1 Cin 1 γ t PN
Pout = 1− α(β−1)
exp(− α(β−1)
) ≤ ρCin (14)
2 (Pk Ak,B +Ii )γt
X α(β−1) 0 1+ P i A i,B
Ik 0 = Pn An,k0 | Gn,k0 |2 , ∀k n ∈ Dout (10) α(β−1)
Pi Ai,B
n=1 Din 1 γ t PN
6 Pout = 1− α(β−1)
exp(− α(β−1)
) ≤ ρDin
X (Pl A 0 +Ij 0+In )γt Pj Aj,j 0
In = Ip (11) 1+ l,j
α(β−1)
Pj A 0
p=1 j,j

(15)
The corresponding SINR received by the cellular user and
D2D user can be expressed as where γt , ρCin and ρDin are the received SINR threshold,
α(β−1)
predefined outage probability requirement of cellular user and
Pl Al,B | Gl,B |2 D2D user, respectively.
γCout = α(β−1)
, ∀j ∈ Din ,l ∈ Cout (12)
PN +Pj Aj,B | Gj,B |2 +Il For outer cell user
Cout 1 γ T PN
Pout = 1− α(β−1)
exp(− α(β−1)
) ≤ ρCout (16)
α(β−1) (Pj Aj,B +Il )γT P A
Pk Ak,k0 | Gk,k0 |2 0 1+ α(β−1)
l l,B
γDout = ,∀k,k ∈Dout ,i ∈ Cin Pl Al,B
α(β−1)
PN +Pi Ai,k0 | Gi,k0 |2 +Ik0 +In Dout 1 γT PN
Pout = 1− α(β−1)
exp(− α(β−1)
) ≤ ρDout
(13) (Pi A 0 +Ik0+In )γT
i,k Pk Ak,k0
1+ α(β−1)
Pk A 0
Therefore, (Pi , Pi0 ) ∈ PCin , (Pl , Pl0 ) ∈ PCout , k,k

(Pj , Pj 0 , Pm ) ∈ PDin and (Pk , Pk0 , Pn ) ∈ PDout . Where (17)

PCin , PCout are the transmit power of cellular user in cell inner where γT , ρ Cout
and ρ Dout
are the received SINR threshold,
and outer region respectively, and PDin , PDout are the transmit predefined outage probability requirement of cellular user and
power of D2D user in cell inner and outer regions, respectively. D2D user, respectively.
Similarly, (Ai,B , Ai0 ,B ) ∈ ACin ,B , (Al,B , Al0 ,B ) ∈ ACout ,B ,
Ak,B is the distance between outer cell D2D transmitter k and C. System Throughput Optimization
B, Aj,B is the distance between inner cell D2D transmitter j The system throughput can be analyzed as
and B, Aj,j 0 is the distance between inner cell D2D transmitter
0 T = log2 (1 + γ) (18)
j and receiver j , Al,j 0 is the distance between outer cell cellu-
0
lar user l and inner cell D2D receiver j , Am,j 0 is the distance where γ denote the SINR of the user. Therefore considering
0 equations(4)-(17), the spectral efficiency optimization problem
co-channel cellular users m and D2D receiver j , Ak,k0 is the
is formulated as
distance between outer cell D2D transmitter k and receiver
0 N X M
k , Ai,k0 is the distance between inner cell cellular user i and X
0 max [TCin + TCout + TDin + TDout ] (19)
outer cell D2D receiver k , and An,k0 is the distance between C=1 D=1
0
co-channel cellular users n and D2D receiver k . Moreover,
TCin = log2 (1 + γCin ), TCout = log2 (1 + γCout ) (20)
(Gi,B , Gi0 ,B ) ∈ GCin ,B , (Gl,B , Gl0 ,B ) ∈ GCout ,B , Gk,B is
the channel coefficient between outer cell D2D transmitter TDin = log2 (1 + γDin ), TDout = log2 (1 + γDout ) (21)
k and B, Gj,B is the channel coefficient between inner cell subject to
D2D transmitter j and B , Gj,j 0 is the channel coefficient min min
0 γC ≥ γC , γD ≥ γD , β ∈ (0, 1) (22)
between inner cell D2D transmitter j and receiver j , Gl,j 0 is
the channel coefficient between outer cell cellular user l and PCmin ≤ PC ≤ PCmax , PD
min
≤ PD ≤ max
PD (23)
0
inner cell D2D receiver j , Gm,j 0 is the channel coefficient where γCmin
and γDmin
are the minimum achievable SINR of
between ch-channel cells cellular users m and D2D receiver cellular user and D2D user respectively. PCmin and PCmax are
0
j , Gk,k0 is the channel coefficient between outer cell D2D the minimum and maximum power range for cellular user, and
0
transmitter k and receiver k , Gi,k0 is the channel coefficient PDmin
and PDmax
are the minimum and maximum power range
between inner cell cellular user i and outer cell D2D receiver of D2D user. The power level of all users should range from its
0
k , and Gn,k0 is the channel coefficient between co-channel maximum and minimum predefined level. In a multicell D2D
0
cellular users n and D2D receiver k . PN is the noise power, communication underlaying uplink cellular network, resource
α is the path-loss exponent, β is the power control factor and pairing criteria between cellular users and D2D pairs directly
there is no power compensation for the signal path loss when impact on transmit power of each user. Therefore, to specify
β equals 0 and path loss is fully compensated when β equals a definite power range for each user is a key criterion for this
1. proposed technique.

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 IV. P ERFORMANCE A NALYSIS
The path loss (P L) is modeled according to micro-urban
models specified by ITU-R report [11]. In this paper, the PL
models for D2D users and cellular users are different. The
PL models for D2D users and cellular users are expressed as
below
L Fc
P LD = 40log10 ( )+30log10 ( )+ 49 (24)
1000 1000
Fc
P LC = 36.7log10 (L)+ 26log10 ( )+40.9 (25)
5
where L is the distance between transmitter and receiver in
meters and Fc is the carrier frequency in GHz.
Fig. 3. Average target SINR of cellular users.
A. Simulation Parameters and Values
The simulation parameters used in performance analysis of
the system is given in Table I. To evaluate the performance as compared to that of the conventional scheme. Thus, our
of cellular communication and D2D communication for the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional scheme.
proposed scheme using FFR technique, we consider a cellular
network of 7 hexagonal cells having eNB at each cell center.
Each hexagonal cell consists of 9 D2D pairs and 30 cellular
users in cell inner region, and 15 D2D pairs and 18 cellular
users in the cell outer region.
TABLE I
PARAMETERS USED IN SIMULATION .

Parameter Value
eNB transmission power 40 dBm-46 dBm(inner cell)
eNB transmission power 43 dBm-49 dBm(outer cell)
D2D transmission power 8 dBm-15 dBm
Noise power -174dBm/Hz
D2D pair distance (10-50)m
Carrier frequency 2GHz
Cell radius 500m Fig. 4. Average target SINR of D2D pairs.
Uplink bandwidth 5MHz
Fig. 5 shows the system total throughput with varying
distance between D2D transmitter and D2D receiver. It can
In this paper, we assumed that each section of the cell be seen from the figure that the distance between D2D
consists of at least one D2D pair which has the ability to reuse transmitter and receiver plays an important role in the system
channel resource of cellular link. The distance between device performance analysis. In our proposed scheme, we considered
transmitter and device receiver is considered as 10m-50m the communication range of D2D pairs from 10-meters to
variable distance. The main principle for selecting reusable 50-meters. Within this communication range, D2D commu-
channel is determined by the distance between the users. The
simulation results are obtained using Matlab simulation tool.
The number of iterations performed for performance analysis
is 10,000 realizations. The results are averaged through the
considered realizations.
B. Simulation Results and Discussions
In this section, we present the simulation results to show
the performance comparison between our proposed scheme
and conventional resource allocation scheme without cell
sectorization method (labeled as without sectorization scheme
for analysis purpose) where the D2D pairs can reuse any
available channel resources of the cellular users [3].
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 shows the cumulative distribution function
(CDF) graph of the average target SINR of cellular users and Fig. 5. System throughput for varying distance between D2D pair.
D2D pairs in both the cell regions. We can see that both the
users in our proposed scheme achieved a higher average SINR nication performance is efficient and beyond this range the

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devices cannot communicate with each other. As compared
to conventional scheme, our proposed scheme accommodates
more throughput for the same communication range.
Fig. 6. System overall throughput for varying number of D2D pairs.
Fig. 6 shows the system total throughput with varying
number of D2D pairs in a cell. The total throughput of the
system is obtained by adding cellular user throughput and D2D
user throughput. We can see from the figure that using cell
sectorization scheme, the proposed scheme entertained higher
throughput to the constantly increasing demand for higher data
rate service.
Fig. 7. System spectral efficiency.
From Fig. 7, we can see that system spectral efficiency after
applying fractional frequency reuse scheme and power control
scheme for interference mitigation in D2D communications
underlaying LTE-A uplink cellular networks achieves more
than the conventional scheme. It is clear that the proposed
fractional frequency reuse and power control scheme signifi-
cantly outperforms the random resource allocation scheme in
terms of spectrum efficiency, system throughput and average
target SINR.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we have proposed a distance based fractional
frequency reuse scheme for a regular hexagonal cell network
with cell sectorization method for mitigating interference
while reusing uplink cellular channel resources by the D2D
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pairs. We formulated an optimization problem which maxi-
mized the overall system throughput while guaranteeing the
power level for both cellular users and D2D pairs which
pledge a definite SINR. Our proposed scheme maintains low
complexity approach to mitigate interference between cellular
users and D2D pairs. The simulation results show that the
proposed scheme significantly improve the system overall
throughput, average target SINR, and overall system spectral
efficiency. In future, we will expand our work on increasing
the number of D2D pairs reusing same cellular resource
simultaneously.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by the MISP (Ministry of
Science, ICT Future Planning), Korea, under the National
Program for Excellence in SW (2017-0241) supervised by the
IITP (Institute for Information Communications Technology
Promotion), (2017-0241).
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