Methods, systems, and computer readable media for optimizing machine type communication (mtc) device signaling

A system comprising:

• a machine type communication (MTC) accumulator configured for establishing a first direct communication path tunnel with an eNodeB and a second direct communication path tunnel with a MTC application server (AS);
• the eNodeB configured to receive a radio resource control (RRC) packet containing MTC data as a payload from a MTC user equipment (UE) device over an established radio bearer link, to locate a MTC data forwarding indicator included in the RRC packet, to forward the MTC Data to the MTC accumulator in response to locating the MTC data forwarding indicator included in the RRC packet;
• and
• wherein a MTC communication session between the MTC UE device and the MTC application server identified by a MTC application server identifier contained in the MTC data is facilitated by the MTC accumulator over the established first and second direct communication paths.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions embodied in the non-transitory computer readable medium that when executed by at least one processor of at least one computer cause the at least one computer to perform steps comprising:

• establishing, by a machine type communication (MTC) accumulator, a first direct communication path tunnel with an eNodeB and a second direct communication path tunnel with a MTC application server (AS);
• receiving, by the eNodeB, a radio resource control (RRC) packet containing MTC data as a payload from a MTC user equipment (UE) device over an established radio bearer link;
• locating, by the eNodeB, a MTC data forwarding indicator included in the RRC packet;
• in response to locating the MTC data forwarding indicator included in the RRC packet, forwarding the MTC Data to the MTC accumulator;
• and
• facilitating, by the MTC accumulator, a MTC communication session between the MTC UE device and the MTC application server identified by a MTC application server identifier contained in the MTC data over the established first and second direct communication paths.