Efficient Assignment of Multiple MBMS Sessions in B3G Networks

In Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), the downlink capacity is limited by the base station transmission power. Therefore, power control plays an important role to minimize the transmitted power shared among unicast and multicast users within a cell. In Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS), power control targets to the efficient utilization of radio and network resources. However, the expected high demand for such services stresses the need for an efficient scheme, capable of dynamically allocating radio resources to parallel MBMS sessions. This paper proposes a power control mechanism for efficient MBMS session assignment in next generation UMTS networks. The mechanism shares efficiently the available power resources of UMTS base stations to MBMS sessions running in the network Furthermore, the mechanism is evaluated through several realistic scenarios and the results indicate the ability of the mechanism to utilize efficiently the radio resources and to ensure the service continuity when parallel MBMS services running in the network.