Energy-efficient multicast transmission scheme in wireless networks

Abstract

Recently, there have been increasing concerns on energy efficiency in wireless networks from different perspectives such as environmental concern and energy price concern. In detail, there is significant effort on reducing potential harms to the environment caused by CO2 emission. Especially, energy consumption in wireless networks is expected to account for almost 50% in information and communication (ICT) in 2020. Moreover, depletion of non-renewable energy resources is expected to induce the increase of energy price, which also affects operational expenditure (OPEX) of network service provider. Therefore, it has recently motivated studies of energy-efficient mobile communications.

In multicast transmission technology, considered as one of the promising transmission technologies in wireless networks, same content is delivered to multiple users. Hence, it is considered as a key technology for supporting growing demand for multimedia application over wireless networks. Specifically, since the multicast transmission increases transmission efficiency without transmitting redundant data, there have been great attentions from both academia and industries to multicast communication technology. Accordingly, multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) standardized in various groups of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Hence, there are great interests to launch MBMS in industries. For instance, in 2013, Verizon was the first operator to announce that it will launch enhanced MBMS (eMBMS) over its LTE networks in 2014.

Technically, since the multicast transmission serves multiple users involved in Multicast Group (MGroup), it is required to provide reliable communication for all users in MGroup. For example, in the most cases, it is necessary to provide satisfactory services to all users in MGroup, regardless their channel condition (good or bad). Thus, data rate for multicast service should be decided by the worst channel user. Accordingly, users with g...