A Novel Mechanism for Radio Capacity Maximization
during MBMS Transmissions in B3G Networks
Antonios Alexiou, Christos Bouras, Vasileios Kokkinos, Evangelos Rekkas
Research Academic Computer Technology Institute, Greece and
Computer Engineering and Informatics Dept., Univ. of Patras, Greece
University of Patras, Rio Campus, 26500 Rio, Patras, Greece
firstname.lastname@example.org, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.org, email@example.com
This paper proposes a novel mechanism for efficient power
control during multicast transmissions in Beyond 3
(B3G) mobile networks. The mechanism utilizes optimally the
available power resources of Universal Mobile
Telecommunication System (UMTS) base stations, resulting to
network capacity maximization. The proposed mechanism is
based on the concept of transport channels combination (point-to-
point and/or point-to-multipoint radio bearers) in any cell/sector
of the network in which Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service
(MBMS) users are residing. In particular, the transport channel
combination that minimizes the transmission power of the base
station is selected for the transmission of the MBMS traffic to the
corresponding cell. The mechanism is evaluated through several
realistic scenarios and the results indicate the ability of the
mechanism to utilize optimally the radio resources of the network.
Furthermore, our approach is compared with several power
control mechanisms existing in the bibliography, including the 3
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) approaches (presented in
3GPP TS 25.346 and 3GPP TR 25.922), in order to highlight the
enhancements that it provides.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
C.2.1 [Computer-Communication Networks]: Network
Architecture and Design – Wireless communication; C.2.3
[Computer-Communication Networks]: Network Operations –
Network Management, Public networks; H.5.1 [Information
Interfaces and Presentation]: Multimedia Information Systems
Design, Management, Performance, Verification.
UMTS, HSDPA, MBMS, RRM, Power Control.
Indisputably, there is a rapidly increasing market for wireless
multimedia applications, such as Mobile TV, that are expected to
face high penetration in future mobile communications industry.
As a consequence, in B3G mobile networks the amount of
multimedia data traffic will surpass the amount of voice traffic. In
order to confront such high requirements for multimedia content,
the MBMS framework was introduced in the Release 6 of the
UMTS architecture. MBMS is a unidirectional service in which
multimedia data is transmitted from a single source entity to
multiple destinations, allowing resources to be shared in an
economical way , . As the term indicates, MBMS consists of
the broadcast and the multicast operation modes.
However, the spread of multimedia data differentiates the current
landscape of Radio Resource Management (RRM) in MBMS and
poses the need for further enhancements. The main requirement
during the provision of MBMS multicast services is to make an
efficient overall usage of radio and network resources. This
necessity mainly translates into improved power control
strategies, since the base stations’ transmission power is the
limiting factor of downlink capacity in UMTS networks. Under
this prism, a critical aspect of MBMS performance is the selection
of the most efficient radio bearer for the transmission of MBMS
multicast traffic. A wrong channel selection may result to a
significant capacity decrease, thus, preventing the mass delivery
of multimedia applications.
In this paper, we propose a power control mechanism for efficient
radio bearer selection in MBMS. The mechanism enhances
MBMS performance in the frame of maximizing radio capacity in
B3G networks. The proposed scheme adopts downlink
transmission power as the optimum criterion for radio bearer
deployment and selects the transport channel combination that
minimizes the transmission power of the base station. Point-to-
Point (PTP) and Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) transmission modes
may be used separately or may be combined and deployed in
parallel. In this way, the mechanism optimally utilizes power
resources and significantly improves radio resources’ allocation.
The paper is structured as follows: In Section 2, we present the
motivation behind our study and the related work in the specific
field. Section 3 is dedicated to an in depth analysis of RRM in
MBMS. Section 4 presents the proposed power control
mechanism, while Section 5 is dedicated to the presentation of the
results. Finally, concluding remarks and planned next steps are
briefly described in Section 6.
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MSWiM’08, October 27–31, 2008, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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