Machine-to-Machine Communications in Ultra-Dense Networks—A Survey

To achieve 1000-fold capacity increase in 5G wireless communications, ultradense network (UDN) is believed to be one of the key enabling technologies. Most of the previous research activities on UDNs were based very much on human-to-human communications. However, to provide ubiquitous Internet of Things services, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications will play a critical role in 5G systems. As the number of machine-oriented connections increases, it is expected that supporting M2M communications is an essential requirement in all future UDNs. In this paper, we aim to bridge the gaps between M2M communications and UDNs, which were commonly considered as two separate issues in the literature. The paper begins with a brief introduction on M2M communications and UDNs, and then will discuss the issues on the roles of M2M communications in future UDNs. We will identify different ways to implement M2M communications in the UDNs from the perspectives of layered architecture, including physical, media access control, network, and application layers. Other two important issues, i.e., security and network virtualization, will also be addressed. Before the end of this paper, we will give a summary on identified research topics for future studies.