Performance evaluation of LTE for MBSFN transmissions

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the most promised latest step towards the 4th generation of radio technologies designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile communications with main target the support of the so-called “Mobile Broadband”. To support Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services (MBMS), LTE offers the possibility to transmit Multimedia Broadcast multicast service over a Single Frequency Network (MBSFN), where a time-synchronized common waveform is transmitted from multiple cells for a given duration. In this manuscript we analytically present the MBSFN delivery method and evaluate its performance. The critical parameters of primary interest for the evaluation of the scheme are the packet delivery cost and its scalability. To this direction, a telecommunication cost analysis of the MBMS service is presented based on the transmission cost over the air interface, as well as the costs of all interfaces and nodes of the MBSFN architecture. Based on this cost analysis we determine the ideal number of cells that should participate in the MBSFN transmission in order to improve the overall MBSFN performance. Since the performance of the MBSFN scheme mainly depends on the configuration of the LTE network that is under investigation, we consider different network topologies, MBSFN deployments and user distributions.