D2D-Based Grouped Random Access to Mitigate Mobile Access Congestion in 5G Sensor Networks

The fifth generation wireless service of sensor networks involves significant challenges when dealing with the coordination of the ever-increasing number of devices accessing shared resources. This has drawn major interest from the research community as many existing works focus on the radio access network congestion control to efficiently manage resources in the context of device-to-device (D2D) interaction in huge sensor networks. In this context, this article pioneers a study on the impact of D2D link reliability in group-assisted random access protocols by shedding light on beneficial performance and potential limitations of approaches of this kind against tunable parameters such as group size, number of sensors, and reliability of D2D links. Additionally, we leverage the association with a geolocation database (GDB) capability to assist the grouping decisions by drawing parallels with recent regulatory-driven initiatives around GDBs and arguing the benefits of the suggested proposal. Finally, the proposed method is proved to significantly reduce the delay over random access channels by means of an exhaustive simulation campaign.