Enhancing FEC Application In LTE Cellular Networks

3rd Generation Partnership Project?s (3GPP) Long
Term Evolution (LTE) is focused on enhancing the Universal
Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA). Evolved-Multimedia
Broadcast and Multicast Service (e-MBMS) uses Multimedia
Broadcast over a Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) operation
in order to improve its performance. In MBSFN operation, data
are transmitted simultaneously over the air from multiple tightly
time-synchronized cells. Raptor codes have been standardized as
the main application layer Forward Error Correction (FEC)
method for e-MBMS due to the advanced error protection they
offer and their overall performance. In this study, we investigate
the application of FEC in MBSFN-enabled LTE cellular
networks and we propose a new scheme that takes into account
the properties of MBSFN in order to provide a more efficient
operation of FEC during e-MBMS transmissions. The proposed
scheme is compared with other file recovery methods and is
evaluated against various network parameters in a realistic
simulation environment.