There has been an exponential increase in the usage of multimedia services in
mobile networks in recent years. To address this accelerating data demand,
mobile networks are experiencing a subtle transformation in their architecture.
One of the changes in this direction is the support of Multicast/Broadcast
Service (MBS) in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Fifth
Generation (5G) network. The MBS has been introduced to enhance resource
utilization and user experience in 3GPP 5G networks. However, there are certain
limitations in the 3GPP 5G MBS architecture, such as the selection of the
delivery method (unicast or broadcast) by the core network (may result in
sub-optimal radio resource utilization) and no provision for converging
non-3GPP broadcast technologies (like digital terrestrial television) with
cellular (3GPP 5G) broadband. In this context, we propose a new architecture
for broadcast broadband convergence in mobile networks. A novelty of the
architecture is that it treats signalling exchange with User Equipment (UE) as
data (service) which results in improved scalability of mobile networks. The
proposed architecture can also be extended for the convergence of cellular
broadband and non-3GPP broadcast networks with ease. The architecture supports
enhanced flexibility in choosing a delivery method (3GPP 5G unicast, 3GPP 5G
broadcast, or non-3GPP broadcast) for user data. We evaluate the performance of
the proposed architecture using process algebra-based simulations,
demonstrating a significant reduction in the number of signalling messages
exchanged between the UE and the network for MBS session establishment as
compared to the 3GPP 5G network.Comment: 6 pages, conference pape