On receiver diversity for grant-free based machine type communications

Grant-free access schemes are steadily gaining momentum for emerging machine type communications and internet of things applications. Relying on variations of the classical ALOHA protocol to allow a vast population of users share a common channel in an uncoordinated fashion, these solutions have recently been embedded in international standards as well as proprietary commercial products. In this context, the use of multiple low-complexity receivers that act as relays, collecting packets from users and forwarding them towards a central unit represents an interesting approach to increase the efficiency of the system, which finds natural application in both terrestrial and non-terrestrial settings. To gain insights on the potential of such a configuration, this paper investigates a two-tier slotted ALOHA system under an erasure channel model. Closed form expressions for both end-to-end throughput and packet loss rate are derived for an arbitrary number of receivers, and the role of correlation among wireless channels connecting users to relays is thoroughly discussed. Non-trivial tradeoffs and systems design hints are highlighted, pinpointing some fundamental benefits and limitations of receiver diversity for grant-free based machine type communications.