A Software Defined Radio based FeMBMS Measurement Receiver: Test Results

Abstract

In 2017, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) introduced “Further evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (FeMBMS)” as an extension of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard as 3GPP Release 14. FeMBMS includes a dedicated broadcast transmission mode on a separate carrier with an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Cyclic Prefix (CP) length of $200 \\mu \\mathrm{s}$, allowing content providers to offer popular services via FeMBMS using existing High Tower, High Power (HTHP) or Medium Tower, Medium Power (MTMP) infrastructure. Synchronization signals and basic signaling information for FeMBMS are periodically transmitted via a Cell Acquisition Subframe (CAS) utilizing the traditional OFDM CP length of only $16.67 \\mu \\mathrm{s}$. The influence of the short CP length used for transmitting the CAS requires further evaluation.Due to Technische Universität Braunschweig’s (TUBS) profound experience with its invention Tower Overlay over LTE-A+, a predecessor of FeMBMS, we were able to implement the world’s first FeMBMS transmitter and receiver based on our software defined radio toolkit.After detailing the architecture of the FeMBMS dedicated mode, this paper presents the relevant mechanisms of the TUBS 3GPP Release 14 FeMBMS receiver and evaluates the performance of the FeMBMS dedicated broadcast transmission mode based on a field measurement campaign focusing on the reception performance.