MBMS Enhancements in Release 7

MBMS will be undergoing enhancements in Release 7 and this work item is seperate from E-MBMS or Enhanced MBMS which is part of 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE).

MBMS is being enhanced in Release 7 and IMS will be able to use MBMS transport. The advantage of this approach is:

• MBMS reception is possible over IP accesses (e.g. I-WLAN)


• Higher MBMS bit rate services possible (e.g. HDTV)


• Support for adaptation of MBMS to the QoS resources provided by the access network(s)


• MBMS services will be available regardless of access technologies and other services will be able to usse MBMS transport

This MBMS Enhancement is still under development and the following is being investigated:

• Radio Interface Physical Layer: Introduction of new transmission schemes and advanced multi-antenna technologies


• Layer 2 and 3: Signalling optimisations


• UTRAN Architecture: Identify the most optimum architecture and functional splits between RAN network nodes
  

3GPP website lists some of the aims and objectives of these MBMS enhancements but theey do not look correct. They are copied from the LTE requirements documents. I will be revisiting this topic when more information is available