Coded random access with multiple coverage classes for massive machine type communication

Abstract

One of the major requirements for next generation mobile or wireless communication systems is to efficiently support a large number of machine type communication (MTC) devices for internet-of-things (IoT) applications. For IoT services, a base station needs to receive packets with very low receive sensitivity since many MTC devices are placed inside buildings or underground while the transmission power of MTC devices is usually low. In order to maintain a wide coverage area, MTC devices with very bad channel conditions need to transmit with low data rates, i.e., with long packet lengths compared to others in good conditions. In this paper, we discuss the performance improvement of random access using a coded random access technique when MTC devices use different packet lengths according to their channel conditions.