Physical Layer Performance Evaluation of LTE-Advanced Pro Broadcast and ATSC 3.0 Systems

This work provides a detailed performance analysis of the physical layer of two state-of-the-art point-to-multipoint (PTM) technologies: evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS) and Advanced Television Systems Committee - Third Generation (ATSC 3.0). The performance of these technologies is evaluated and compared using link-level simulations, considering relevant identified scenarios. A selection of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the International Mobile Telecommunications 2020 (IMT-2020) evaluation process has been considered. Representative use cases are also aligned to the test environments as defined in the IMT-2020 evaluation guidelines. It is observed that ATSC 3.0 outperforms both eMBMS solutions, i.e. MBMS over Single Frequency Networks (MBSFN) and Single-Cell PTM (SC-PTM) in terms of spectral efficiency, peak data rate and mobility, among others. This performance evaluation serves as a benchmark for comparison with a potential 5G PTM solution

5G New Radio for Terrestrial Broadcast: A Forward-Looking Approach for NR-MBMS

"© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permissíon from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertisíng or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works."[EN] 3GPP LTE eMBMS release (Rel-) 14, also referred to as further evolved multimedia broadcast multicast service (FeMBMS) or enhanced TV (EnTV), is the first mobile broadband technology standard to incorporate a transmission mode designed to deliver terrestrial broadcast services from conventional high power high tower (HPHT) broadcast infrastructure. With respect to the physical layer, the main improvements in FeMBMS are the support of larger inter-site distance for single frequency networks (SFNs) and the ability to allocate 100% of a carrier's resources to the broadcast payload, with self-contained signaling in the downlink. From the system architecture perspective, a receive-only mode enables free-to-air (FTA) reception with no need for an uplink or SIM card, thus receiving content without user equipment registration with a network. These functionalities are only available in the LTE advanced pro specifications as 5G new radio (NR), standardized in 3GPP from Rel-15, has so far focused entirely on unicast. This paper outlines a physical layer design for NR-MBMS, a system derived, with minor modifications, from the 5G-NR specifications, and suitable for the transmission of linear TV and radio services in either single-cell or SFN operation. This paper evaluates the NR-MBMS proposition and compares it to LTE-based FeMBMS in terms of flexibility, performance, capacity, and coverage.This work was supported in part by the European Commission through the 5G-PPP Project 5G-Xcast (H2020-ICT-2016-2 call) under Grant 761498.Gimenez, JJ.; Carcel, JL.; Fuentes, M.; Garro, E.; Elliott, S.; Vargas, D.; Menzel, C.... (2019). 5G New Radio for Terrestrial Broadcast: A Forward-Looking Approach for NR-MBMS. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. 65(2):356-368. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBC.2019.291211735636865

Demonstrating Immersive Media Delivery on 5G Broadcast and Multicast Testing Networks

This work presents eight demonstrators and one showcase developed within the 5G-Xcast project. They experimentally demonstrate and validate key technical enablers for the future of media delivery, associated with multicast and broadcast communication capabilities in 5th Generation (5G). In 5G-Xcast, three existing testbeds: IRT in Munich (Germany), 5GIC in Surrey (UK), and TUAS in Turku (Finland), have been developed into 5G broadcast and multicast testing networks, which enables us to demonstrate our vision of a converged 5G infrastructure with fixed and mobile accesses and terrestrial broadcast, delivering immersive audio-visual media content. Built upon the improved testing networks, the demonstrators and showcase developed in 5G-Xcast show the impact of the technology developed in the project. Our demonstrations predominantly cover use cases belonging to two verticals: Media & Entertainment and Public Warning, which are future 5G scenarios relevant to multicast and broadcast delivery. In this paper, we present the development of these demonstrators, the showcase, and the testbeds. We also provide key findings from the experiments and demonstrations, which not only validate the technical solutions developed in the project, but also illustrate the potential technical impact of these solutions for broadcasters, content providers, operators, and other industries interested in the future immersive media delivery.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures, IEEE Trans. Broadcastin