Improving Massive Access to IoT Gateways

IoT networks handle incoming packets from large numbers of IoT Devices (IoTDs) to IoT Gateways. This can lead to the IoT Massive Access Problem that causes buffer overflow, large end-to-end delays and missed deadlines. This paper analyzes a novel traffic shaping method named the Quasi-Deterministic Traffic Policy (QDTP) that mitigates this problem by shaping the incoming traffic without increasing the end-to-end delay or dropping packets. Using queueing theoretic techniques and extensive data driven simulations with real IoT datasets, the value of QDTP is shown as a means to considerably reduce congestion at the Gateway, and significantly improve the IoT network’s overall performance.