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In cellular massive machine-type communications, a device can transmit directly to the BS or through an aggregator (intermediate node). While direct device-BS communication has recently been the focus of 5G/3GPP research and standardization efforts, the use of aggregators remains a less explored topic. In this article we analyze the deployment scenarios in which aggregators can perform cellular access on behalf of multiple MTC devices. We study the effect of packet bundling at the aggregator, which alleviates overhead and resource waste when sending small packets. The aggregators give rise to a trade-off between access congestion and resource starvation, and we show that packet bundling can minimize resource starvation, especially for smaller numbers of aggregators. Under the limitations of the considered model, we investigate the optimal settings of the network parameters in terms of number of …