Reliable multicast transport and power scheduling for MBMS delivery over 3G mobile satellite systems

The inherent broadcast capabilities of satellites make them an attractive solution for the delivery of multimedia services to mobile users in third generation (3G) networks. Reliable delivery of content over the hostile land-mobile satellite channel is one of the key technical system requirements that can be addressed at different protocol layers. We focus our attention on two of these mechanisms that provide non-perfect reliability: the packet-level forward error correction technique at the transport layer and the power scheduling function in the satellite radio interface. We rely on an end-to-end simulation platform in order to assess the performance gain achieved by the two mechanisms, providing at the same time clear indications for the achievable benefit at system level when the two mechanisms act in co-ordination rather than in isolation.