On the way to massive access in 5G: Challenges and solutions for massive machine communications (invited paper)

Abstract

Machine Type Communication (MTC) is expected to play a significant role in fifth generation (5G) wireless and mobile communication systems. The requirements of such type of communication mainly focus on scalability (i.e., number of supported end-devices) and timing issues. Since existing cellular systems were not designed to support such vast number of devices, it is expected that they will throttle the limited network resources. In this paper, we introduce an effective solution for handling the signalling bottlenecks caused by massive machine communications in future 5G systems. The proposed approach is based on a device classification scheme using the devices’ requirements and position for forming groups of devices with the same or similar device characteristics. Our scheme is analysed, and the evaluation results indicate that the proposed solution yields significant reduction in collisions compared to the standard when MTC devices attempt to access the Random Access CHannel (RACH).