The widespread proliferation of mobile devices has motivated Device-to-Device (D2D) communications as a means of cell offloading toward better Quality of Service (QoS) and higher energy efficiency. Although Wi-Fi networks have the lion's share regarding the D2D communications in the unlicensed spectrum, it is uncertain whether they constitute the best option as technology evolves. In particular, the increasing transmission data rates, the novel interference cancelation techniques, as well as the potential of centralized network support, stress the need for new Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols, especially in content dissemination scenarios where all nodes share the same goal. In this article we study the suitability of Wi-Fi technology in content dissemination scenarios with multiple available source nodes, and we propose two energy-aware game theoretic MAC strategies (a distributed and a network-assisted) as possible alternatives. Our simulation results show the effectiveness and the flexibility of our proposed solutions, highlighting the necessity for new MAC designs.

Peer Reviewed