Multicast delivery of file download services in 3G mobile networks with MBMS

This article investigates the efficient transmission of file download services to several users simultaneously in 3G mobile networks with HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) and MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services). HSDPA supports high speed point-to-point (p-t-p) transmissions (up to several Mb/s), whereas with MBMS the same content can be transmitted with a point-to-multipoint (p-t-m) connection to multiple users in a unidirectional fashion. Multicast delivery can be implemented through only p-t-p transmissions with HSDPA, a single p-t-m transmission with MBMS, or using both jointly in a hybrid approach by employing HSDPA for error repair of the MBMS p-t-m transmission. We…