Deep Learning-Based Cellular Random Access Framework

Abstract

Random access (RA) or preamble collision is one of the crucial problems in massive internet-of-things (IoT) at the network entry stage. Since a massive number of IoT nodes simultaneously attempt RAs on the same physical random access channel (PRACH), preambles may be selected by multiple nodes, incurring preamble collisions at the first step of the RA procedure. However, conventional RA models are limited to binary preamble detections which poses severe RA performance loss in the massive IoT environment. In this paper, we propose a deep learning (DL)-based end-to-end RA framework which has detection and resolution abilities for the collided preambles. In particular, advanced preamble classification and timing advance (TA) classifications are performed using deep neural networks (DNNs) for improving the probability of RA success while reducing the delay of the entire RA procedure. The effectiveness of the proposed DNN-based preamble and TA classifiers are demonstrated through extensive simulations. We further evaluate the system-level performance of the proposed DL-based RA model. It shows a significantly higher probability of instant RA success, which makes every node succeed in RA with very limited reattempts, and also maintains a significantly lower RA delay in massive IoT environment.