Energy-Efficient Power and Time-Slot Allocation for Cellular-Enabled Machine Type Communications

Machine type communications (MTCs) over cellular networks pose significant challenges as a result of the large number of MTC devices (MTCDs), small and time controlled data transmissions, and rigorous energy limitation for small size MTCDs. This letter proposes an energy-efficient radio resource allocation (RRA) scheme for cellular-enabled MTCs, where user equipment (UEs) [used for human type communications (HTCs)] are configured as gateways for MTCs. On condition that the latency constraints for MTCs and HTCs are satisfied, our objectives are to minimize the total energy consumption of MTCDs and prolong network lifetime. Comparing with other RRA schemes, simulation results show that the proposed RRA scheme can achieve higher energy-efficiency and, therefore, extend network lifetime in LTE-A cellular networks.