Development of an Algorithm for Reducing Signalling Overhead Cost in 5G Networks

The 5G mobile networks aim to accomplish the austere requirements on data rates, reliability, and connectivity. In order to achieve these objectives, heterogeneous radio access technologies are used. In order to use the technology efficiently, massive connectivity of devices has been proposed in 3GPP Release 15. In the stand alone architecture, small base stations are deployed without any dependency on LTE core network. Increase in the number of devices will lead to an increase in signalling overhead consisting of tracking area update and paging overhead. This paper proposes an approach to reduce the signalling cost using clustering algorithm. The base stations form clusters using the proposed algorithm, and act as static cluster heads. The clustering algorithm is used to connect different types of User Equipments (UEs), including the vehicles, machines and various stationary IoT devices. In addition, this paper also deals with a hybrid scenario which represents the unification of both the layers (LTE and NR) for the initial rollout of the 5G to fill the coverage gaps. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides better performance in terms of reduced energy consumption by the UEs.