Performance Analysis and Optimal Access Class Barring Parameter Configuration in LTE-A Networks with Massive M2M Traffic

Over the coming years, it is expected that the number of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices that communicate through long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) networks will rise significantly for providing ubiquitous information and services. However, LTE-A was devised to handle human-to-human traffic, and its current design is not capable of handling massive M2M communications. Access class barring (ACB) is a congestion control scheme included in the LTE-A standard that aims to spread the accesses of user equipments (UEs) through time so that the signaling capabilities of the evolved Node B are not exceeded. Notwithstanding its relevance, the potential benefits of the implementation of ACB are rarely analyzed accurately. In this paper, we conduct a thorough performance analysis of the LTE-A random access channel and ACB as defined in the 3GPP specifications. Specifically, we seek to enhance the performance of LTE-A in massive M2M scenarios by modifying certain configuration parameters and by the implementation of ACB. We observed that ACB is appropriate for handling sporadic periods of congestion. Concretely, our results reflect that the access success probability of M2M UEs in the most extreme test scenario suggested by the 3GPP improves from approximately 30%, without any congestion control scheme, to 100% by implementing ACB and setting its configuration parameters properly.