Pillar: No-Code OSS
New Mobile Business Opportunities with LTE Broadcast
LTE Broadcast technology offers new revenue-generating services for mobile operators. Here are some of the most attractive ones.
A few of the new LTE Broadcast mobile business opportunities are:
- Live event streaming
- Real-time TV streaming
- News, stock market, sports and weather updates
- Broadcast music and radio
- Off-peak media delivery
Traditionally, mobile networks were designed for voice services, with each cell phone using its dedicated connection with the network. Then smartphones, Internet services, and lately rich multimedia content came into play.
Right now, with YouTube and similar platforms being responsible for most of the traffic on mobile networks, operators discovered that there are events such as sports games and concerts where many people access content at the same time, or even the same content, each one with their dedicated link. This approach is known as Unicast. But this is not an efficient use of scarce resources, such as RF spectrum.
On the other hand, the advantages of the Broadcast approach, or transmitting the same content to a large number of subscribers using just one shared media are well known. The concept is extensively deployed in networks, but it’s not just until recently that it emerged as a promising solution for mobile networks thru Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS) technology, and more with the release of Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS) or for short, LTE Broadcast.
What are Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services?
Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS) is a point-to-multipoint solution for mobile networks designed to allow multimedia content to be efficiently delivered to subscribers. It uses a single shared, much like traditional TV service, where you can select a channel (subscribe in multicast language) and receive the same content over the same RF link as many many other potential interested subscribers.
Even though the concept is pretty clear, its practical deployment involves several technical challenges that have been addressed thru LTE Broadcast.
LTE Broadcast Applications
This mobile broadcasting technology is very attractive for events, such as sports games or concerts. But it can also be used for mobile TV, radio and, in general, for any streaming services with a large number of simultaneously interested subs. This opens the opportunity for several new revenue-generating services for mobile operators.
Source: http://www.qualcomm.com/documents/lte-broadcast-revenue-enabler-mobile-media-era
LTE Broadcast Architecture
LTE Broadcast requires four network elements to deliver its broadcasting service:
- Broadcast multicast service center (BMSC) — this is a core network element, acting as Content Management System located at the core of the network. It manages the interface with content providers including billing and the content to be transmitted over the wireless network.
- MBMS gateway (MBMS-GW) — a network element that delivers traffic using IP-multicast and can reach all or a group of the network cell sites with a single transmission.
- Multicell/multicast coordination entity (MCE) – this is the part of the network that will take care of the administration of radio resources for MBMS to all radios that are part of the MBMS service area.
- Mobility management entity (MME) – the network element that handles MBMS session control signaling like session start, update, and stop.
Figure 1. MBMS network architecture
The decrease in ARPU for traditional voice services is forcing mobile operators to look for new revenue streams, and multimedia services seem to be one of their choices. Traditional mobile networks are not well suited for these types of services. As such, it’s quite likely that LTE broadcast will become a “hot” mobile technology in upcoming years.