LTE-Xtend: scalable support of M2M devices in cellular packet core

M2M (machine-to-machine) communications are bringing new challenges in the cellular networks as billions of such devices will need to be supported but at a fraction of the cost of today's smartphones. Analysis shows that while many of these devices generate little data load on the network, their control signaling load and memory/CPU resource consumption due to tunnel maintenance in the cellular core could still be significant. To address this scalability issue, we propose a modified packet core architecture for LTE networks called LTE-Xtend that customizes control message handling and tunnel management for M2M traffic. Evaluations using OpenAirInterface demonstrates significant scalability benefits in using LTE-Xtend.