Temporal scalability and layered transmission

The deployment of mobile multimedia broadcast services like mobile TV over cellular networks has just started. The coverage in terms of delivered quality per receiver is an important measure to evaluate the experienced quality. In order to provide a reasonable quality for all receivers in a network cell, we analyze graceful degradation techniques in Rel. 6 of 3rd Generation Partnership Project´s (3QPP) Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS). We show the benefits of using H.264/AVC temporal scalability in an existing system for graceful degradation in order to add coverage for users in poor reception conditions, although at a reduced level of quality. For that we define assessment techniques for measuring the quality coverage describing the amount of users reached with a certain media play-out quality. We connect this quality coverage to a measure for used network cell capacity giving the used network resources for 3QPP Rel. 6 network cells. We evaluate graceful degradation under simulated 3QPP Rel. 6 network conditions showing the benefits of graceful degradation for 3QPP MBMS mobile television services.