This study's goal is to use the Multicast-Multihop Optimal Adaptive Forwarding Strategy (MMOAFS) instead of the Optimal Adaptive Forwarding Strategy to maximise the efficiency of the spectrum for overlay device-to-device (D2D) communication (OAFS). The routing metrics (delay, throughput, energy, packet delivery ratio, and normalised routing overhead) for the proposed work MMOAFS are compared with the existing OAFS by varying the device distance from the cell coverage area in the network simulator (NS2 2.35) environment for the sample size of 10.When compared to OAFS with normalised routing cost of 5 bytes and a 16 ms delay, MMOAFS's routing metric is improved to 4 bytes and 11 ms. The normalised routing overhead and latency have the least significant value (P0.05), according to statistical analysis. The MMOAFS with multicasting multihop property developed for overlaid device to device communication performed better within the parameters of this study.