Using lightly synchronized MultiPacket Reception in Machine-Type Communication networks

This paper proposes a new random access Medium Access Control protocol for Machine-Type Communication (MTC) systems, which applies MultiPacket Reception techniques to provide energy efficient interaction and extreme low latency (ELL) to MTC terminals (MTs). The protocol adapts the Hybrid-Network Diversity Multiple Access (H-NDMA) to run with MTs, increasing the energy saving opportunities by using a receiver tone to synchronize accesses. The MTs use power, space and the adaptive coding multiplexing capabilities of H-NDMA to improve the throughput and reduce delay. The paper analyses the scalability of the proposed system with large number of MTs per BS. It shows that ELL can be achieved by more MTs, as long as the total load is controlled. The performance was evaluated using simulations, focusing mainly in the system's delay and the probability to exceed a specified packet service time.