LTE Broadcast: an alternative to 4G for content distribution?

In addition to broadcasting applications, LTE Broadcast would allow other services such as emergencies, location, content caching, and data downloading.

Salvador Hinarejos, director técnico de TV & Media para Ericsson Iberia, has broken down in a plenary presentation in BIT Experience the possibilities that LTE Broadcast opens up and the possibility of being able to send the same content to a large number by optimizing the spectrum.

Hinarejos maintains that in addition to broadcasting applications, LTE Broadcast would allow other services such as emergencies, location, content caching, data downloading, M2M (digital signage, in-car connectivity...).

Hinarejos has also focused on the possibilities that LTE offers for hybrid services, video on demand during non-peak hours and as a cache for STBs.

LTE Broadcast draws on three technologies: eMBMS (Evolved Multimedia Broadcast), HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), MPEG-DASH (MPEG adaptive streaming over HTTP).

The Ericsson manager highlighted that LTE Broadcast allows a network to be configured from a few cells to an entire country. Each cell could contribute to several single frequency networks (SFN). As for the bitrate, it will depend on what services are needed, and the broadcast areas could only be activated when necessary. Networks, once configured, could activate or deactivate “broadcast mode”.

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