EPC and 4G Packet Networks, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12

LTE Broadcasting

12.1 Background and Main Concepts

The rapid growth of mobile data usage creates a potential challenge for operators in terms of providing enough capacity and service quality for every user. It is therefore natural that various ways of optimizing the overall network resource usage are being proposed and investigated.

In those cases where the same content is to reach a large group of users, a natural proposal is to utilize broadcasting mechanisms instead of allocating dedicated network resources to every single user, hence achieving a point-to-multipoint distribution mechanism. Examples of content suitable for such a distribution scheme include broadcasting of TV channels, mass distribution of MMS, and push of software ...