Mode switch between SFN and PTP for multicast services in LTE networks

The multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS) in 3GPP LTE is characterized by multicast broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) operation. The multicast services are transmitted by single frequency network (SFN) mode, and the unicast services are delivered with point-to-point (PTP) mode. To minimize the demanded radio resources for multicast services in the LTE, a novel mode switch (MS) between SFN and PTP for multicast services is proposed. MS takes into account PTP mode for multicast services and the switch is based on the handover threshold. To solve the minimization problem, MS adapts the handover threshold with the difference in the demanded radio resources between SFN mode and PTP mode for multicast services. The simulation results show that the proposed MS achieves less demanded radio resources than SFN mode for all the multicast services.

Min-max load balancing scheme for mixed multicast and unicast services in LTE networks

To avoid the traffic congestion in long term evolution （LTE） networks, a min-max load balancing （LB） scheme is proposed to minimize the demanded radio resources of the maximum loaded cell. For the mixed multicast and unicast services, multicast services are transmitted by single frequency network （SFN） mode and unicast services are delivered with point-to-point （PTP） mode. The rain-max LB takes into account point-to-multipoint （PTM） mode for multicast services and selects the proper transmission mode between SFN and PTM for each multicast service to minimize the demanded radio resources of the maximum loaded cell. Based on the solution of this minimization problem, if the maximum loaded cell does not overload, the min-max LB will change PTM mode into SFN mode for mulficast services to achieve high quality of service （QoS）. Simulation results show that the proposed miu-max LB scheme requires less radio resources from the maximum loaded cell than SFN mode for all multicast services.