Joint Device-to-Device and MBSFN Transmission for eMBB Service Delivery in 5G NR Networks

Next to come 5G New Radio (NR) radio access technology is foreseen to support a massive number of “resource-hungry” connections and provide high-quality services. Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service over Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) for NR, expected in forthcoming 3GPP releases, will enable the simultaneous delivery of the same content over the multiple 5G cells synchronized in time. In this paper, we show that Device-to-Device (D2D) communications can improve the MBSFN network coverage, data rate, and latency for the future 5G use cases. More specifically, we propose a new D2D-aided MBSFN area formation algorithm, which foresees that in such an area the content can be delivered through either MBSFN or D2D transmissions. Achieved simulation results testify that our proposed algorithm is able to improve the system Aggregate Data Rate (ADR) and, at the same time, to satisfy the user’s requirements.