In cellular networks, base stations broadcast configurations that devices use for the random access procedure, which is a vital part of the connection setup. Ideally, the network should choose configurations based on the deployment scenario to optimize radio resource management. Doing so can, for example, decrease collisions of random access messages. We captured 112,806 data points of cellular broadcast information from nine network operators across three countries and analyzed how the operators configure the random access procedure. We found that configurations often do not fit the deployment scenario, and neighboring cells often use the same configuration, causing an unnecessarily high risk of collisions and, hence, delay in the connection setup. Furthermore, we simulated the random access procedure in NS-3 and found that by varying the configurations in a large area with many cells, the number of collisions can be reduced by 43% on average and up to 61%, and the connection delay can be lowered by 11% on average and up to 42%. Our findings indicate that simple adaptations in the random access configurations can greatly improve the performance of cellular networks.

翻译：在蜂窝网络中，基站广播设备用于随机接入过程的配置，而该过程是连接建立的关键部分。理想情况下，网络应根据部署场景选择配置以优化无线资源管理，例如，这可以减少随机接入消息的碰撞。我们收集了来自三个国家九家网络运营商的112,806个蜂窝广播信息数据点，并分析了运营商如何配置随机接入过程。我们发现，配置往往与部署场景不匹配，并且相邻小区常使用相同配置，从而导致碰撞风险不必要地升高，进而造成连接建立延迟。此外，我们在NS-3中模拟了随机接入过程，发现通过在大范围内改变多个小区的配置，碰撞次数平均可减少43%，最高可达61%，连接延迟平均可降低11%，最高可达42%。我们的研究结果表明，对随机接入配置进行简单调整即可显著提升蜂窝网络的性能。