MBMS Power Planning in Macro and Micro Cell Environments

Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS), introduced in Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 6, is a point-to-multipoint downlink bearer service that addresses the need for the efficient usage of the expensive radio resources. Power control is one of the most important aspects in MBMS due to the fact that Node B´s transmission power is a limited resource and must be shared among all MBMS users in a cell. Consequently, the analysis of transmitted power plays a fundamental role in the planning and optimization process of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) radio access networks. This paper investigates several factors affecting Node B´s transmission power levels such as, cell deployment, propagation models, Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, users´ distributions and mobility issues. Finally, different transport channels for the transmission of the multicast data over the UTRAN interfaces are considered.