Energy aware handoff management for cluster-based D2D communications

In device-to-device (D2D) multicasting, network service continuity can be disrupted due to the mobility of multicasting users, potentially resulting in a lower multicasting rate and increased energy dissipation by the serving cluster heads (CHs). To ensure seamless communication for mobile multicasting users, this paper addresses an energy-efficient handoff strategy for 5G D2D multicasting. The proposed approach identifies victim users based on the energy dissipation of their current CH and determines the target destination accordingly. An integer programming-based mathematical model is presented, along with a suitable greedy algorithm. The proposed handoff technique demonstrates over 90% service coverage with a high fairness index, and achieves more than double the energy savings compared to other methods. A detailed quantitative and qualitative performance evaluation is provided, demonstrating that our approach results in minimal energy dissipation of 0.3 Joules and achieves a higher multicasting rate of 8 Mbps, even under conditions of high user density.