Enhancements for Enabling Point-to-Multipoint Communication Using Unlicensed Spectrum

Exponential increase in data rate demand has lead to the periodic upgrade of mobile network infrastructure, with a new generation of wireless access technology being developed every decade. Currently, the fifth generation (5G) of mobile networks - supporting higher data rates and reliability, with lower latency are being developed and planned to be deployed. Point-to-Multipoint or multicast/broadcast communication, which has received limited attention so far in 5G, enables the delivery of common content to a multitude of users, while consuming minimal amount of radio resources. In this work, we consider the usage of unlicensed spectrum for enabling such transmissions using enhancements of the currently specified LTE-Advanced eMBMS network. The proposed enhancements are fully compatible with distributed radio access network deployments, and require limited coordination between base stations. Using realistic 5G network assumptions, we also evaluate performance of such enhancements in delivering media content to a large number of users.