UE Counting Mechanism for MBMS Considering PtM Macro Diversity Combining Support in UMTS Networks

Multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS) specified in 3GPP Release 6 are expected to be transmitted to large groups of users within the cell range. MBMS counting mechanism intends to analyse whether it is more economic to transmit the multimedia services in a point-to-point (PtP) or point-to-multipoint (PtM) mode, evaluating in terms of radio resources management whether it is preferable to use a single common channel reaching down the cell edge or single dedicated channels allocated to each user which convey identical MBMS content. MBMS counting mechanism was initially developed without consideration of macro diversity combining (MDC) and users were only counted in each cell individually which can result in a waste of radio resources. With the introduction of MDC techniques users need to be counted in several cells so that they can successfully receive the MBMS services at the cell edge