Impact of packet-level FEC and outer block interleaving on MBMS delivery over WCDMA mobile satellite systems

-The inherent broadcast capabilities of satellites make them an attractive solution for the delivery of multimedia services to mobile users in third generation (3G) networks. Reliable delivery of content over a hostile landmobile satellite channel is one of the key technical system requirements that can be addressed at different protocol layers. In this paper, we focus our attention on two of the mechanisms which provide partial reliability: the PacketLevel Forward Error Correction (PLFEC) technique in Radio Access Network (RAN) and different interleaving depths at physical layer (inter frame) in the satellite radio interface. We rely on an end-to-end simulation platform in order to assess the performance gain achieved by the two mechanisms separately, and providing clear indications for the achievable benefits at system level when the two mechanisms act in co-ordination rather than in isolation.