Comparison of multicast/broadcast services in Long Term Evolution Advanced and IEEE 802.16m networks

This paper performs a comparison of multicast/broadcast services (MBS) support in Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) IEEE802.16m. Firstly, the main technical features of both standards concerning MBS operation are presented. It is shown that WiMAX offers higher unicast/MBS multiplexing flexibility as it supports both frequency and time multiplexing schemes, whereas LTE-A only includes time multiplexing. Besides, only WiMAX supports multi-antenna transmission. Next, the results of two simulation-based assessments are presented. In the former, it is considered a scenario with all cells transmitting the same MBS service. The effect of inter-site distance (ISD) on the maximum MBS data rate is evaluated. Results show that WiMAX configurations outperform LTE-A for small ISD. This is because WiMAX provides a higher number of resources dedicated to data transmission for the same bandwidth. Furthermore, some WiMAX configurations support two spatially multiplexed data streams. With higher ISDs, LTE-A outperforms single-stream WiMAX configurations. In the second assessment, a MBSFN area surrounded by interfering cells is considered to compare unicast/MBS multiplexing performance. The higher maximum MBS data rate is achieved in WiMAX with time division multiplexing, which is precisely the only alternative included in LTE-A. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.