Efficient delivery of MBMS multicast traffic over HSDPA

Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) are two key technologies that constitute a significant step towards the Mobile Broadband. MBMS was introduced by the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in order to support broadcast and multicast communication over wireless networks and in particular over Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Concurrently, HSDPA aims to ensure the transmission of high peak data rates and increase system capacity. In this paper we evaluate the performance of MBMS multicast transmission over the premier transport channel used in HSDPA, named High Speed-Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH). Due to the fact that downlink transmission power is the scarcest resource in UMTS networks, the evaluation is performed through an analytical dimensioning of the MBMS downlink transmission power. Furthermore, the impacts of power allocation on MBMS capacity are investigated.