Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service

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Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS) is a broadcasting service offered via existing GSM and UMTS cellular networks. The infrastructure offers an option to use an uplink channel for interaction between the service and the user, which is not a straightforward issue in usual broadcast networks, as for example conventional digital television is only a one-way (unidirectional) system. MBMS uses multicast distribution in the core network instead of point-to-point links for each end device.

MBMS will start to be rolled out in cellular networks during 2009 and gives the opportunity to broadcast TV, film, and information such as free overnight transmissions of newspapers in a digital form and other media in these networks.

MBMS has the major benefit that the network infrastructure already exists for mobile network operators and the deployment can be cost effective compared with building a new network for the services. The broadcast capability enables to reach unlimited number of users with constant network load. Further it also enables the possibility to broadcast information simultaneously to many cellular subscribers for example emergency alerts.

MBMS will first be made available to users via a MBMS wireless dongle sticks enabling city-wide launches of MBMS television and newspaper services received on laptop and desktop computers.

MBMS is two services. MB stands for the relatively simple to achieve multimedia broadcasting. MS stands for the more challenging Multicast Services. MB's main use will broadcasting television channels in much the same way as traditional terrestrial and satellite TV companies offer TV today. MB TV will be broadcast TV many channels, some Free to Air paid for by advertising content and others restricted to the cellular networks call subscribers, as an added value service, whilst some TV channels will be paid for by subscription.

Free to air, or Free to Subscriber, MB TV. Cellular service providers, will compete to win audience share by commissioning the very best entertainment. Free to air TV services containing advertising will generate an average revenue of $3 a day per subscriber. MBMS TV and newspaper advertising revenue is forecast^{[by whom?]} to be comparable with todays revenues from cellular telephone calls.

MBMS cellular service providers, will broadcast some high resolution TV channels designed for viewing on laptops, desktop PCs, domestic TV screens and on cellular phones. MBMS service providers will broadcast many channels of TV, designed for viewing on a Cell Phone screen format. These TV channels will also be viewable on domestic TVs and laptops but with a border around the picture, to aid viewing quality. These borders optionally contain advertising.

The number and the resolution quality of MBMS TV channels broadcast will increase at night when cellphone transmitters are at present underused, giving more than 100 channels of TV in areas with a high population.^{[citation needed]} Use of the cellphone transmitters to broadcast MB TV has considerable advantages over traditional terrestrial and satellite TV broadcasting, being truly portable. Reception is not reliant on rooftop or external aerials. cellular telephone broadcasts use micro wavebands that penetrates buildings more effectively than traditional terrestrial TV broadcasts. MBMS cellular TV broadcasts are received using an aerial smaller than a sugar cube. The signal is delivered to a PC or Smart Phone and the programs can be stored on the Computer's or Smart Phone's memory for viewing at the user's convenience.

Cellular Multimedia Broadcast TV receivers, as with WiFi anddDigital terrestrial TV receivers, MBMS TV receivers will be built into future generation of TVs and PCs.

Household Television viewers will go over to watching the, more convenient, cellular television broadcasting channels, in their homes, in the same way that over the past 20 years people have gone over to using cellular phones when they used to use land lines.

Broadcasting TV channels for automobile passengers from cell phone transmitters is the first practical solution to watching live television in a moving automobile or bus. Tests have shown that reception is not adversely affected at speeds in excess of one hundred miles an hour. It is believed that within a few years of the Cellular MB/MBMS launch automobiles, buses and coaches will have MB television screens built in as standard.

MBMS and 4G. Cellular TV broadcasting and MS will give the cellular service providers a very considerable return on their investment in the at-present under-subscribed 3G networks and will bring forward the launch of 4G.

MBMS will for the first time enable cellular networks to distribute by shared broadcasts a new generation of newspapers in a digital form, sent out simultaneously to all cell phone users within each transmitter footprint by a single shared transmission.

Received and stored onto the memory of, a new generation of Newspaper Phones, Reading and viewing made easier by, folding low energy screens. 10 + GB of memories, to store the Multimedia Broadcast Newspapers, that will contain news Video clips, Audio, Music, and Computer Games as well as written text and photos. MBMS Newspaper broadcasts will utilise the presently-unused transmitter resource in the night-time hours with smaller updates broadcast during the day to update the newspaper as fresh news breaks. Popular Newspapers, will be free. Advertising within their content, will provide an important new revenue stream for the cellular service providers, estimated^{[by whom?]} at between $1-$5 per reader per day.

URL telephone numbers, within the MBMS newspaper content will, when clicked, activate the users cellular telephone, seamlessly connecting the user to the advertiser, giving the service providers further revenue from extra call and Internet connections.

MBMS newspapers will be quicker and more friendly than reading newspapers on the Internet, navigating from story to story will be instant, as the content is accessed from the memory of the cell phone, Videos and Photos open instantly without buffering.

Once the MBMS Newspaper is received in the middle of the night, users do not need to have a phone line or wireless connection to read their Multimedia Newspaper, allowing reading on trains as they go through tunnels where traditional wireless conection might well be lost, and on aeroplanes.

MBMS receivers will be built into laptop and desktop computers in a similar way that WiFi receivers are built in today today, enabling personal computer users to receive MBMS TV and newspaper services.

MBMS's delivery of digital newspapers will help reduce global warming by saving millions of trees.^{[citation needed]}

As traditional paper newspapers become a thing of the past, the delivery of newspaper data by MBMS will reduce the Newspaper Industries carbon footprint from the present more than 100,000 tons a year (close to 1% of the world's CO2 pollution), to give the newspaper industry a relatively green carbon footprint.

As the world goes over to reading Paperless Newspapers, on Cell Phones and PCs, delivered by MBMS, millions of acres of forest will be saved from being cut down, for pulping into paper for traditional paper newspapers, further helping the Planet by absorbing and locking away hundreds of thousands of tons of Co2 emissions in the extra wood grown by the 100s of Millions of trees saved.^{[citation needed]}

Technical explanation

The MBMS feature is split into the MBMS Bearer Service and the MBMS User Service. The MBMS Bearer Service includes a Multicast- and a Broadcast Mode. The MBMS Bearer Service uses IP multicast addresses for the IP flows. The advantage of the MBMS Bearer Service compared to legacy UMTS bearer services (interactive, streaming, etc) is, that the transmission resources in the core- and radio network are shared. One MBMS packet flow is replicated by GGSN, SGSN and RNCs. MBMS may use an advanced counting scheme to decide, whether or not zero, one or more dedicated (i.e. unicast) radio channels lead to a more efficient system usage than one common (i.e. broadcast) radio channel.

UTRAN MBMS offers up to 256 kbit/s per MBMS Bearer Service and between 800 kbit/s and 1.7 Mbit/s per cell/band. The actual cell capacity depends on the UE capabilities. GERAN MBMS offers between 32 kbit/s and 128 kbit/s. Up to 4 GSM timeslot may be used for one MBMS bearer in downlink direction. The actual data rate per Traffic Slot depends on network dimensioning.

The MBMS User Service is basically the MBMS Service Layer and offers a Streaming- and a Download Delivery Method. The Streaming Delivery method can be used for continuous transmissions like Mobile TV services. The Download Method is intended for "Download and Play" services. To increase the transmission reliability, an application layer FEC code may be used. Further, a file-repair service may be offered to complement the download delivery method.

MBMS has been standardized in various groups of 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project), and the first phase standards are found in UMTS release 6. As Release 6 was functionally frozen by the 3rd quarter of 2004, practical network implementations may be expected by the end of 2007, and the first functional mobile terminals supporting MBMS are estimated to be available by also end of 2007.

MBMS is believed^{[by whom?]} to be currently under active evaluation by mobile network operators as a means of delivering mobile television to the mass market. Competing technologies include DVB-H, DMB, EPM-DAB, BCAST and MediaFLO. However due to spectrum availability and the cost of building new broadcast infrastructure these technologies may not be viable. On the other hand, Media FLO has been deployed ommercially in the US by Verizon Wireless through their relationship with MediaFLO USA, Inc. (a subsidiary of Qualcomm). DMB and DVB-H trials have been ongoing for more than a year now, like those during the football 2006 championships in Germany. MBMS technologies, like TDtv are now also in trials in the UK^[1], however DMB and DVB-H seem to still hold a time to market advantage over MBMS technologies.

3GPP technical specifications

MBMS Bearer Service (Distribution Layer):

• 3GPP TS 22.146 Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS); Stage 1
• 3GPP TS 23.246 Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS); Architecture and functional description
• 3GPP TS 25.346 Introduction of the Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) in the Radio Access Network (RAN); Stage 2
• 3GPP TS 25.992 Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS); UTRAN/GERAN Requirements
• 3GPP TS 43.246 Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) in the GERAN; Stage 2
• 3GPP TR 25.803 S-CCPCH performance for Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS)

MBMS User Service (Service Layer):

• 3GPP TS 22.246 Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) user services; Stage 1
• 3GPP TS 26.346 Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS); Protocols and codecs
• 3GPP TR 26.946 Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) user service guidelines
• 3GPP TS 33.246 3G Security; Security of Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS)
• 3GPP TS 32.273 Telecommunication management; Charging management; Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) charging

Market trials

3UK, Orange, Vodafone, and Telefonica trial TDtv in the UK^[1] There is no indication that these trials resulted in any commercial deployment.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Mobile Phone TV trial in the UK by 3UK, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone - PVR Wire

See also

• Mobile TV
• DVB-H
• MediaFLO
• TDtv