Abstract
In this article, the Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) as standardized in 3GPP is presented. With MBMS, multicast and broadcast capabilities are introduced into cellular networks. After an introduction into MBMS technology, MBMS radio bearer realizations are presented. Different MBMS bearer services like broadcast mode, enhanced broadcast mode and multicast mode are discussed. Streaming and download services over MBMS are presented and supported media codecs are listed. Service layer components as defined in Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) are introduced. For a Mobile TV use case capacity improvements achieved by MBMS are shown. Finally, evolution of MBMS as part of 3GPP standardization is presented.
Highlights
Mobile networks have emerged from voice telephony networks to multimedia delivery networks
If the same multimedia service shall be provided over geographical areas comprising several cells or even an entire nation, advantages can be taken from the inherent single frequency operation of the WCDMA and long term evolution (LTE), that is, all cells can use the same carrier frequency and the terminal is inherently able to receive the signals from several cells simultaneously [51]
The higher cell capacity allows for higher bearer data rates, the maximum supported bearer data rate has been increased to 512 kbps
Summary
Mobile networks have emerged from voice telephony networks to multimedia delivery networks. Latest 3G technology such as HSDPA (High-speed data packet access) [3] gives room for several steps of capacity increases This allows for more users while benefiting both the diversity and the quality of mobile TV services. The specifications of 3G broadcast services were functionally frozen in 2005 Both MBMS and BCMCS introduce only small changes to the existing radio and core network protocols. MBMS and BCMCS can be introduced by a pure software upgrade in general as long as the underlying hardware provides sufficient processing power which is the case for all stateof-the-art network nodes This reduces the implementation costs both in terminals and in the network. MBMS and BCMCS focus on the transport aspects of broadcast and multicast services They provide transport bearers over which IP multicast [11] packets can be delivered. Capacity and media quality issues will be addressed
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