Scalable addressing of M2M terminals in 4G cellular wireless networks

Demand for Machine to Machine (M2M) communication over cellular wireless network has recently seen a rapid growth. This growth resulted in extra demand for the limited numbering and addressing resources used in the cellular wireless networks. The two main, potentially, limiting resources for the rising demand for M2M communication in the cellular wireless networks are the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and the Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN). Each device communicating over the 4th Generation (4G) cellular wireless network is allocated an IMSI to uniquely identify it in the network and at least one MSISDN that is used for terminating calls to the device. This paper addresses the numbering and addressing impact on M2M communication over the 4G cellular networks. We present a solution, based on the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) of the 4G cellular networks, to extend the use of IMSI to accommodate the projected growth in the M2M communication.