Integration of high tower, high power LTE-Advanced broadcast into mobile networks

Abstract

Service delivery over 3GPP Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) is predominantly based on user specific unicast transmissions. The evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) enables an additional option for content distribution by offering one single data stream to multiple (multicast) or all (broadcast) users within one or multiple mobile network cells. This one-to-many content distribution can lead to a reduction of cellular network load whenever identical data is received by multiple user devices at the same time. The radio access network topology for eMBMS is restricted to the Low Tower, Low Power (LTLP) environment of mobile access networks. The Tower Overlay over LTE-Advanced+ (TOoL+) system, developed by Technische Universitaet Braunschweig, introduces an additional transmission layer by defining new LTE-A features in order to transmit dedicated LTE-A broadcast carriers over traditional High Tower, High Power (HTHP) TV broadcast networks. These new features are summarized and indicated by the term ‘LTE-A+’. This paper introduces the TOoL+ system approach. The TOoL+ resource signaling mechanisms and information elements for the integration of dedicated LTE-A+ broadcast carriers into mobile networks are presented.