Modeling and analysis of random access channels with bursty arrivals in OFDMA wireless networks

Random access channels (RACHs) in cellular networks are normally designed for Poisson-distributed arrivals with a constant rate. Unexpected bursty arrivals may result in severe collisions in RACHs and thus degrade users' service qualities. This paper presents an analytical model for investigating the transient behavior of the RACHs with bursty arrivals generated in a specific time interval for orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless networks. The proposed model has considered the implementation details of the OFDMA random access procedure (such as periodic access characteristic, uniform random backoff policy, and power-ramping effect) and the effect of new arrivals. The performance metrics of collision probability, success probability, and average access delay and the cumulative distribution function of the number of preamble transmissions and access delay for the successfully accessed mobile station are then derived based on the analytical model. The accuracy of the proposed analytical model was verified through computer simulations, and the results show the effectiveness of the proposed model.