The challenges of M2M massive access in wireless cellular networks

Abstract

The next generation of communication systems, which is commonly referred to as 5G, is expected to support, besides the traditional voice and data services, new communication paradigms, such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services, which involve communication between Machine-Type Devices (MTDs) in a fully automated fashion, thus, without or with minimal human intervention. Although the general requirements of 5G systems are progressively taking shape, the technological issues raised by such a vision are still partially unclear. Nonetheless, general consensus has been reached upon some specific challenges, such as the need for 5G wireless access networks to support massive access by MTDs, as a consequence of the proliferation of M2M services. In this paper, we describe the main challenges raised by the M2M vision, focusing in particular on the problems related to the support of massive MTD access in current cellular communication systems. Then we analyze the most common approaches proposed in the literature to enable the coexistence of conventional and M2M services in the current and next generation of cellular wireless systems. We finally conclude by pointing out the research challenges that require further investigation in order to provide full support to the M2M paradigm.

Long-range communications in unlicensed bands: the rising stars in the IoT and smart city scenarios

“…Although these standards provide very low power consumption, which is a fundamental requirement for many IoT devices like, e.g., smart sensors, their limited coverage constitutes a major obstacle, in particular when the application scenario involves services that require urban-wide coverage, as in typical Smart City applications [4]. The experimentations of some initial Smart Cities services have, indeed, revealed the limits of the multihop short-range paradigm for this type of IoT applications, stressing the need for an access technology that can allow for a place-&-play type of connectivity, i.e., that makes it possible to connect any device to the IoT by simply placing it in the desired location and switching it on [5].…”

“…In fact, differently from traditional broadband services, IoT communication is expected to generate, in most cases, sporadic transmissions of short packets. At the same time, the potentially huge number of IoT devices asking for connectivity through a single Base Station (BS) would raise new issues related to the signaling and control traffic, which may become the bottleneck of the system [5]. All these aspects make current cellular network technologies not suitable to support the envisioned IoT scenarios, while, on the other hand, a number of research challenges still need to be addressed before the upcoming 5G cellular networks may natively support IoT services.…”

IoT’s Tiny Steps towards 5G: Telco’s Perspective

“…Advanced small cell [66,123] deployment is considered to be one of the key enablers for achieving many of the requirements currently envisioned for 5G [67], with higher data rates [68,171,250] and more capacity [171][172][173][174], as most important. Higher data rates and smaller battery consumption can be achieved using short distances in the small cell [69].…”

M2M meets D2D: Harnessing D2D interfaces for the aggregation of M2M data

“…Connecting a sheer bulk of MTDs with the cellular network will cause congestion at the core network. This poses a number of challenges on cellular networks and necessitates efficient resource management and clustering techniques with minimal signaling overhead [1].…”