On the Impact of IoT Traffic on the Cellular EPC

One of the most disruptive innovations in next-generation cellular networks will be the massive support of Machine Type and IoT (MTC/IoT) communications. This type of communications exhibits very different requirements from traditional cellular traffic: in MTC/IoT, the same base station may need to provide service to thousands of nodes, each of them transmitting small and infrequent data. In this context, it is critical to evaluate the impact of MTC/IoT on the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network. We do so by quantifying analytically the signaling load on the EPC due to MTC/IoT bearer instantiation in both standard and 3GPP IoT-optimized LTE networks. Our analysis, validated via simulation, provides useful insights on the impact of the traffic load on each component of the EPC, as well as on the system design.