Adaptive Contention-based Random Access for Uplink Reporting in 3GPP Ambient IoT Networks

Abstract

Ambient Internet of Things (A-IoT) targets energy harvesting (EH), battery-less devices as a simple connectivity solution for extensive ultra-low-power deployments. These devices typically face intermittent energy availability, making uplink reports increasingly susceptible to access collisions and energy outages. In this paper, we build upon the cellular standardization of A-IoT and examine the paging-triggered contention-based random access (CBRA) framework for uplink reporting. We analyze the effects of energy availability and collisions on these systems and introduce an EH-aware access control mechanism. In this mechanism, the reader broadcasts an access probability in the paging message, which helps regulate the number of devices attempting random access. Results show that, unlike the baselines, the proposed method scales well under dense deployments by keeping collisions nearly constant, improving access efficiency, and substantially reducing the number of paging rounds required for successful reporting. These results highlight the importance of lightweight reader-side access control for reliable and resource-efficient reporting in A-IoT environments.