Community-based Random Access Scheme for M2M Communications in LTE Networks

Supporting Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications has been an essential requirement for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. To cope with the massive access requests with stringent delay requirements, in this paper, a community-based random access scheme is proposed by exploiting the spatial correlation of Machine-Type Devices (MTDs). Specifically, a community detection algorithm is first proposed to form the community structure of the network, based on which one MTD is selected in each community to establish a connection with the base station upon each emergency event. Simulation results corroborate that by reducing the number of access requests, the proposed scheme can significantly improve the delay performance especially in the massive access scenarios with a limited number of preambles.