Realising a vRAN based FeMBMS Management and Orchestration Framework

FeMBMS is the first broadcast only profile standardized in 3GPP. Re1-14 enables large scale transmission of multimedia content to mobile portable devices including free to air reception of TV services. While the new specification already meets most of the 5G-Broadcast requirements it is also expected to be further evolved in future 5G/3GPP releases. Moreover, in parallel to 5G standardization, a transition in the Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure is also taking place, transition where the virtualization of radio access technologies through the use of commodity processing hardware promises to make an end-to-end cloud based 5G network infrastructure a reality. In this paper we investigate first the potential of vRAN based 5GBroadcast networks. Later, based on OpenAirInterface and the containerization of its components, we introduce the development and analysis of a Kubernetes based FeMBMS end-to-end network architecture. The results address, among others, the potential of vRAN to foster the broadcast industry requirements in a 3GPP ecosystem.