Multi-rate Multicasting Over Fixed Pre-Computed MIMO Beams

The next realm of multimedia services will be characterized by immersive communications blurring the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds. In bandwidth-demanding applications, such as extended reality (XR), haptic, holographic, or 360° video, especially for a dense user deployment, multicast traffic delivery can significantly benefit communication and computing performance. Coping with the requirements of such demanding applications implies integrating traditional multicasting solutions and novel radio access technologies with highly directional communications using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) over millimeter-wave (mmWave). We propose a dynamic multi-rate multicasting strategy over a fixed array of pre-computed MIMO beams. We address particular 5G Multicast/Broadcast Services (MBS) deployments delivering next-generation multimedia services like 360° video in a reduced service area and multiple concurrent users interested in the same content. Our solution takes advantage of the coexistent spatial and channel quality diversity of the multicast set of users. We assess the effectiveness of our proposal through link-level simulations evaluating multiple quality of service (QoS) metrics.