Power Saving mechanisms for M2M communication over LTE networks

Abstract

Machine to Machine (M2M) communication is expected to be a major driver of growth in mobile communications for cellular networks such as LTE. Since LTE networks are primarily designed and optimized for human to human (H2H) communications, existing protocols and mechanisms are not very efficient for supporting M2M communication. Several modifications are needed to address the service requirements and traffic characteristics of M2M devices in these networks. Device power efficiency is one of the crucial requirements for M2M communication. We focus on solutions to decrease power consumption of M2M devices over 4G networks. M2M traffic characteristics are different from those of H2H traffic in terms of the size and the frequency of the generated data. One possible mechanism is to maximize the time that the M2M device is in low power state. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of extending the Paging Cycle and reducing the RRC Connected-to-Idle transition tail time on power savings. Our results show that for infrequent data transmission extending Paging Cycle reduces power consumption up to 79.3%. However, for frequent data transmission reducing Connected-to-Idle transition tail time is more effective and reduces power consumption by up to 76.2%.