A model to evaluate MBSFN and AL-FEC techniques in a multicast video streaming service

Abstract

In a multicast video streaming service over a cellular network, the same content is sent to a mass audience using a common channel. However, users belonging to the same multicast channel perceive different characteristics of the radio channel. Moreover, in wireless environments, the radio interface introduces an important level of interference and noise, resulting in a high rate of transmission errors. Therefore, a protection of the information is needed at each receiver using Forward Error Correction (FEC) schemes, which allow the recovery of the lost packets sending redundancy together with the payload. FEC solutions can be used in combination with other techniques to overcome the existing limitations of the mobile network, in particular, the use of a single-frequency network to prevent the effect of destructive signal interference. This paper analyzes the performance of a video streaming service comparing different FEC schemes, Raptor and RaptorQ codes, where some system parameters can be tuned in a single-frecuency network.