Multimedia Broadcasting in LTE Networks

Long Term Evolution (LTE) constitutes the latest step before the 4th generation (4G) of radio technologies designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile communications. To support Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services (MBMS), LTE offers the functionality to transmit MBMS over Single Frequency Network (MBSFN), where a time-synchronized common waveform is transmitted from multiple cells for a given duration. In MBSFN transmissions, the achieved Spectral Efficiency (SE) is mainly determined by the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) selected. This study proposes and evaluates four approaches for the selection of the MCS that will be utilized for the transmission of the MBSFN data. The evaluation of the approaches is performed for different users’ distribution and from a SE perspective. Based on the SE measurement, the approach that either maximizes or achieves a target SE for the corresponding users’ distribution is determined.