Adopting FEC for Reliable Multicasting Over LTE Networks

The key feature for the provision of Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services (MBMS) in Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks is the Multimedia Broadcast over a Single Frequency Network (MBSFN). On the other hand, the use of Forward Error Correction (FEC) in mobile multicast transmission has significant advantages and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has adopted the application layer FEC in the MBMS standard. In this paper, the authors investigate the impact of the application layer FEC over the MBSFN delivery method.