Practical Performance Measurements of LTE Broadcast (eMBMS) for TV Applications

The 3GPP Release-14 specification has enhanced long-term evolution (LTE) enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) to enable the provision of television services according to some of the requirements of the broadcasting industry. These improvements include radio interface enhancements, such as support for larger intersite distances in single-frequency network deployments and the introduction of more flexibility including a dedicated eMBMS carrier with 100% broadcast resource allocation. Although the performance of LTE eMBMS has been extensively evaluated by numerical computations, it is crucial to perform laboratory measurements that provide insights into the operation of the system in a practical setup. This paper describes the construction of eMBMS chains within the laboratory to carry out physical-layer measurements within a controlled environment and presents a methodology to measure the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of eMBMS signals (that can time multiplex both unicast and broadcast parts). The SNR thresholds at different modulation and coding schemes are measured independently in the laboratories of the British Broadcasting Corporation Research and Development and Institut für Rundfunktechnik, and the results are compared with the results obtained with numerical evaluations.