Packet aggregation for machine type communications in LTE with random access channel

Abstract

A packet aggregation method is proposed in this paper to lower the packet collision rate when the random access channel is used for machine type communications (MTC) uplink channel access in LTE. With the proposed packet aggregation method, a UE triggers random access when the aggregated packets in the buffer reaches the given threshold. However, this method reduces the packet collision rate at the expense of an extra latency which is used to aggregate certain amount of packets. Therefore, the tradeoff should carefully be selected between packet loss rate reduction and extra channel access latency. In this paper, we derive the packet loss rate and channel access latency as functions of amount of aggregated packets using a Semi-Markov chain model. With the derived results, the optimal amount of aggregated packets which satisfies the packet loss requirement and keeps the latency as small as possible can be found, which is verified through simulations.