RAN Rel-18: Requirements for Broadcasting and Media from 5G-MAG
David Vargas, BBC and Chair of Content Distribution – Technology (CD-T) WG in 5G-MAG presented requirements from the association for 3GPP RAN Release 18 for media and broadcasting at the 3GPP MRP workshop: RAN Release 18 for Industry Verticals, June 2021.
The main motivation for 5G standards applicable to media distribution is the efficient delivery of media content e.g. TV, radio, on-demand, personalized, immersive, etc., which is currently reaching audiences by means of different networks and technologies.
Mobile broadband (PLMN), terrestrial broadcast and satellite networks are in the scope of both 5G-MAG activities and 3GPP standardisation. 5G-MAG members support work in 3GPP in these areas in relation to media distribution.
LTE-based 5G Terrestrial Broadcast in 3GPP RAN Rel-18
5G-MAG proposes enhancements on the following priorities:
- Connection of EnTV RAN (FeMBMS) to 5G Core
- Optimization for simultaneous support of 5G Broadcast & NR Unicast
- Time Interleaving
Other topics of interest are:
- Public Warning capability
- Efficiency enhancements, e.g., MIMO (existing antennas/RF stages in handsets)
- Overhead Reduction
Media Distribution over PLMNs in 3GPP RAN Rel-18
5G-MAG has the following priorities:
- Receive-only mode/Free-to-air for MBS
- Multicast reception in RRC_INACTIVE state
- Potential leftovers from MBS Rel-17
Other topics of interest are:
- Considerations on UE handset backwards compatibility are essential
- MBS SFN support for inter-gNB/DU scenarios
- MBS resource optimization for RAN sharing deployment
- MBS Physical Layer Time Interleaving
- Broadcast/Multicast and Unicast Superposition Transmission (BMUST)
- Techniques to enhance cell coverage, in particular in rural areas (e.g. CovEnh)
- Techniques to address universal access to unicast/multicast/broadcast services (e.g. FS_PALS)
Media Production in 3GPP RAN Rel-18
5G-MAG supports uplink enhancements (e.g. for higher uplink bitrates or better QoS) and recognises the need to conduct a gap analysis on Rel-17 RAN technologies based on the requirements in SA1 TS 22.263 (please refer to §6.2, which shows the tables of performance requirements). SA4 work in the Study Item “NPN4AVPROD” should also be considered
