Analysis of the impact of FEC techniques on a multicast video streaming service over LTE

Abstract

In a multicast video streaming service the same multimedia content is sent to a mass audience using only one multicast stream. In multicast video streaming over a cellular network, due to the nature of the multicast communication, from a source to multiple recipients, and due to the characteristics of the radio channel, different for each receiver, transmission errors are addressed at the application level by using Forward Error Correction (FEC) techniques. However, in order to protect the communication over the radio channel, FEC techniques are also applied at the physical layer. Another important technique to improve the communication of the radio channel is the use of a single-frequency network. This paper analyzes the performance of a video streaming service over a cellular network taking into account the combined impact of different factors that affect the transmission, both the physical deployment of the service and the two levels of FEC.