Multicast Broadcast Services Support in OFDMA-Based WiMAX Systems

Multimedia stream service provided by broadband wireless networks has emerged as an important technology and has attracted much attention recently. An all-IP network architecture with reliable high-throughput air interface makes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access (OFDMA)-based mobile worldwide interoperability for microwave access (mobile WiMAX) a viable technology for wireless multimedia services, such as Voice over IP (VoIP), mobile TV, and so on. One of the main features in a WiMAX MAC layer is that it can provide differentiated services among different traffic categories with individual QoS requirements. In this paper, the authors first give an overview of the key aspects of WiMAX and describe Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) architecture of the 3GPP.