Energy Borrowing Transmission Scheme Based on D2D Communication for 5G Networks

Abstract

In our paper, we proposed an Energy Borrowing (EB) transmission scheme which is used to conserve the battery life of user equipment (UE), such as a mobile phone. EB is based on device-to-device (D2D) communication and cellular networks, particularly, on out-band D2D (Wi-Fi Direct, IEEE 802.11) and 5G networks. Since D2D offers higher energy efficiency than cellular networks, in this scheme, a UE with low remaining battery power establishes a D2D connection with a nearby UE, and the nearby UE transfers the low remaining battery UE's packets to/from gNB (5G-base station). As nearby UE plays an active role in the low remaining battery UE's connection with gNB. Therefore, we can rephrase that a UE with low battery power is virtually borrowing the battery resources of a nearby UE. This paper introduces the operation protocol and procedure followed by EB with the use of Wi-Fi Direct and 5G networks. Experiments and simulations demonstrate that EB can extend terminal battery lifetime (a valuable characteristic for long-lasting batteries), and it is more effective as compared with the existing scheme that uses only the cellular network.