Analytical Calculation of the User Threshold for the Switching between Unicast and Broadcast in Cellular Networks

Abstract

The ever increasing demand for high quality multimedia content in mobile networks requires the implementation of techniques for efficient spectrum management. Broadcast transmission is the preferred solution for scenarios in which the same content is transmitted to many users at the same time. The objective of this study is to propose an analytical method to calculate the user threshold to switch from unicast to broadcast in order to reduce radio resource utilization. We compute the probability of coverage of a given location in a Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area using tools from stochastic geometry. This expression is general and valid for a point not necessarily in the center of the MBSFN area. We use it to develop a method to calculate the user threshold analytically.

MBSFN and SC-PTM as Solutions to Reduce Energy Consumption in Cellular Networks

“…In the case of MBSFN, we proposed an expression in [4] to calculate the probability of coverage for a user located at any place inside an MBSFN area. This area is formed by the BS located inside a disk of radius R s .…”

“…In this section, we use our analytical method [4] to calculate the number of users per cell to switch from unicast to broadcast (MBSFN or SC-PTM) in order to reduce radio resource utilization. The main steps are presented in the following for the sake of clarity.…”

“…However, few works study the energy consumption of broadcast transmission compared to unicast transmission. In [3] and [4], we show that in situations where many users demand the same content, broadcast transmission allows to reduce bandwidth utilization compared to unicast. Our results motivated this study in which we compare broadcast and unicast in terms of Base Station (BS) and User Equipment (UE) energy consumption.…”