An enhanced EAB algorithm to reduce RACH congestion due to IoT traffic in LTE-A networks

Increasing IoT traffic in LTE-A networks imposes several issues such as RACH congestion due to large number of devices accessing the network at the same time. EAB (extended access barring) based solutions have been proven to be efficient methods of giving instant relief from RACH congestion in the network. But current EAB solutions are not suitable for the scenario where network traffic is from mixture of light, moderate, and high delay tolerant IoT devices. As a result, these solutions may lead to unnecessary barring of some of the IoT devices. In this paper, we have proposed a noble EAB algorithm which pro-actively monitors the congestion in the network and avoids collective barring of IoT devices. The algorithm has been evaluated based on various metrics such as success rate, average delay, and average backoff. Apart from this, the paper analyses the performance of H2H and M2M devices when moderate congestion reduction methods such as Long-Backoff method, Separate Preamble method, and Slotted Access method are merged with the proposed EAB algorithm