Expanding LTE for Devices: Requirements, Deployment Phases and Target Scenarios

Abstract:
The vast majority of wireless traffic is expected to be dominated by machines and/or devices before the end of this decade. However, wireless communication networks have been designed mainly with human users in mind. Whilst scale and type of M2M (machine-to-machine) applications are growing rapidly over today's cellular networks, they are still defined following mainly human-to-human communication requirements. To meet the requirements of M2M applications, a new kind of network is needed to serve efficiently a huge number of devices which may have rather modest communications needs. In this paper we address the requirements, challenges, and taxonomy criteria for M2M applications and use cases. Three typical target scenarios are proposed, namely traffic control with smart navigation, smart metering and monitoring, and e-healthcare, which are expected to be the basis for the technical specifications of the extension of LTE system concept for M2M communications. The requirements and challenges identified for these scenarios could serve as the common starting platform for further and detailed investigations of the technical assumptions.