Classification of LTE Uplink Scheduling Techniques: An M2M Perspective

The Internet of Things (IoT) aims at connecting a very large number of devices using an Internet-like architecture. Machine-to-machine (M2M) networks are considered the main component of the IoT. Long-term evolution (LTE) and LTE-advanced (LTE-A) are excellent candidates for supporting M2M communications due to their native IP connectivity and scalability for massive number of devices. Therefore, LTE schedulers should be capable of satisfying the needs of M2M devices such as timing constraints and specific quality of service (QoS) requirements. In this paper, we present a survey on uplink scheduling techniques over LTE and LTE-A from an M2M perspective. We focus on the aspects associated with M2M communications; namely, power efficiency, QoS support, multihop connectivity, and scalability for massive number of devices.