Adaptive random multiple access for status update collection with Successive Interference Cancellation

We investigate the performance of a Multi-packet reception Adaptive Slotted Access (MASA) scheme in the framework of massive machine-type communication, specifically targeted to update message collection. The need to support timely updates from a large number of uncoordinated devices motivates the analysis of Age of Information (AoI) and energy efficiency. We consider a system model incorporating Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) and an adaptive access strategy, where users adjust access parameters to attain high spectral efficiency under varying contention levels. Specifically, we propose to adapt the target Signal-to-Noise-plus-Interference Ratio (SNIR), besides the transmission probability. An analytical model accounting for a variable number of active users is introduced and validated through simulations. We further compare the proposed MASA scheme with a baseline (no SIC) stabilized Slotted ALOHA and with the state of the art AIRA-SIC approach. We show that jointly adapting the transmission probability and the target SNIR yields significant performance gains.