Title: Data Aggregation and Packet Bundling of Uplink Small Packets for Monitoring Applications in LTE,
Abstract: In cellular massive Machine-Type Communications (MTC), a device can transmit
directly to the base station (BS) or through an aggregator (intermediate node).
While direct device-BS communication has recently been in the focus of 5G/3GPP
research and standardization efforts, the use of aggregators remains a less
explored topic. In this paper we analyze the deployment scenarios in which
aggregators can perform cellular access on behalf of multiple MTC devices. We
study the effect of packet bundling at the aggregator, which alleviates
overhead and resource waste when sending small packets. The aggregators give
rise to a tradeoff between access congestion and resource starvation and we
show that packet bundling can minimize resource starvation, especially for
smaller numbers of aggregators. Under the limitations of the considered model,
we investigate the optimal settings of the network parameters, in terms of
number of aggregators and packet-bundle size. Our results show that, in
general, data aggregation can benefit the uplink massive MTC in LTE, by
reducing the signalling overhead.