Performance Analysis of a Device-to-Device Communication-Based Random Access Scheme for Machine-Type Communications

Group paging was proposed by the 3rd generation partnership project to reduce the awesome paging overhead in machine-type communication (MTC) that usually involves a huge number of devices performing small data transmissions. Under group paging, MTC devices with identical or similar traffic characteristics are assembled into a paging group; and all the devices in a paging group is paged by a single group paging message. After receiving a group paging message, all the devices in a paging group simultaneously contend for the random access channel to transmit their random access requests, thereby resulting in congestion in the random access network in the case of large group size. To tackle this problem of group paging, we previously proposed an improved random access (I-RA) scheme. In this paper we develop a mathematical model based on Poisson arrival approximation method to analyze the performance of the I-RA scheme. We derive closed-form analytical formulas for performance metrics, such as successful access probability, collision probability, average access delay, the cumulative distribution function of preamble transmission, etc. The accuracy of the analytical formulas is validated through simulation. Based on the formulas, we conduct a numerical study to investigate the impact of diverse parameters on the performance of the I-RA scheme. Moreover, we compare the performance between the I-RA scheme and the existing schemes by numerical studies. The mathematical model developed and the formulas derived in this paper can guide the implementation of the I-RA scheme in MTC.