Learning Automata-Based Access Class Barring Scheme for Massive Random Access in Machine-to-Machine Communications

The machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, which achieve the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT), can be carried over wireless cellular networks. The massive random access (RA) in M2M communications will cause radio access network congestion in the base station (BS), leading to sharp deterioration in access delay and access probability. Access class barring (ACB) that can directly control the flow of machine-type communication (MTC) devices by an ACB factor is an efficient scheme to prevent the BS from traffic overload. In wireless cellular networks, the RA resources (i.e., preambles) are shared by M2M and human-to-human (H2H) devices, and research on ACB scheme ordinarily assumes that a restricted number of preambles are assigned to M2M traffic. However, when suffering from massive access in M2M communications, it is desirable to rapidly satisfy the access requests from MTC devices using all available preambles, especially in time-sensitive IoT scenarios. In this paper, we study the massive access problem in M2M traffic centered scenarios where M2M and H2H traffic can apply for all available preambles without distinction. Utilizing the self-adaptive learning property of learning automata, we further propose a novel learning automata-based ACB (LA-ACB) scheme. Simulation results show that the LA-ACB scheme achieves the performance close to theoretical optimality. The BS equipped with the LA-ACB scheme can effectively control the M2M traffic by dynamically adjusting the ACB factor under the interference of H2H traffic and provide quality services for both M2M and H2H traffic.