A Dynamic Hybrid Counting Procedure for eMBMS of 3GPP

Abstract

In this paper, we identify two inefficiencies in the counting procedure of the evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) in 3GPP: (1) it may consume too much network resources in determining the number of User Equipments (UEs) which are interested in receiving MBMS services, and (2) it is too conservative in that the counting results may be smaller than actual numbers because those UEs in the RRC_IDLE state are ignored (for avoiding RACH congestion). We then propose a new dynamic method by combining the theory of Geometric Splitting-based Estimation (GSE) and the theory of probability to accelerate the eMBMS counting procedure. Compared to the original eMBMS counting procedure, which only counts the UEs in the RRC_CONNECTED state, our scheme also counts the UEs in the RRC_IDLE state. However, our method still improves the accuracy of counting results and saves radio resources.