Efficient Resource Allocation Strategies for Multicast/Broadcast Services in 3GPP Long Term Evolution Single Frequency Networks

In this paper, we consider the single frequency network (SFN) operation of broadcast/multicast services, and develop resource allocation schemes to minimize the amount of resource over-provisioning. Over-provisioning is required when SFN areas are overlapping because all the cells in the SFN area should use the same resource to transmit a given MBMS service. We first develop an optimal resource allocation scheme that minimizes the over-provisioning. Due to the computational complexity of this scheme, we develop sub-optimal schemes whose complexity is quadratic in the number of services. In addition, we develop an incremental resource allocation scheme for newly arriving services that does not alter the resources allocated to existing services. We present numerical results showing the benefits of our proposed schemes. Motivated by these numerical results, we design a hierarchically overlapping SFN areas scheme that strikes the right balance between complexity and resource over-provisioning.