Integration of Broadcast and Broadband in LTE/5G (IMB5) - experimental results from the eMBMS testbeds

Abstract

This paper describes the results of the project “Integration of Broadcast and Broadband in LTE/5G” (IMB5). The IMB5 project explores the LTE-broadcast mode eMBMS within two detailed single-frequency-network (SFN) field trial networks in Erlangen and Munich, Germany and identifies potential improvements of the current broadcasting feature within LTE towards future releases of 4G and 5G. On the User Equipment (UE) side, terminals from Qualcomm and Samsung based on commercial chipsets have been used mainly for application layer tests. For detailed physical layer tests, two different LTE software-defined-radio platforms (one based on the OpenAirInterface framework and one from National Instruments) have been set up to support detailed field experiments with the existing and future extended eMBMS beyond the state-of-the-art in LTE release 12. On the application layer, it is shown in the project, that using LTE eMBMS, a flexible service mix of unicast mobile broadband and broadcast linear TV can be delivered. For country-wide deployment of eMBMS SFNs, physical layer waveform modifications like an increased cyclic prefix compared to the current LTE standard are recommended.