In cellular massive machine-type communications, a device can transmit directly to the BS or through an aggregator (intermediate node). While direct device-BS communication has recently been the focus of 5G/3GPP research and standardization efforts, the use of aggregators remains a less explored topic. In this article 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 trade-off 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 signaling overhead.

中文翻译：

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用于 LTE 监控应用的上行链路小数据包的数据聚合和数据包捆绑


在蜂窝大规模机器类型通信中，设备可以直接向BS传输或通过聚合器（中间节点）传输。虽然直接设备与基站通信最近已成为 5G/3GPP 研究和标准化工作的重点，但聚合器的使用仍然是一个较少探讨的话题。在本文中，我们分析了聚合器可以代表多个 MTC 设备执行蜂窝接入的部署场景。我们研究了聚合器中数据包捆绑的效果，它减少了发送小数据包时的开销和资源浪费。聚合器导致了访问拥塞和资源匮乏之间的权衡，并且我们表明数据包捆绑可以最大限度地减少资源匮乏，特别是对于数量较少的聚合器。在所考虑模型的限制下，我们研究了聚合器数量和数据包大小方面的网络参数的最佳设置。我们的结果表明，一般来说，数据聚合可以通过减少信令开销来使 LTE 中的上行链路大规模 MTC 受益。