Embracing RaptorQ FEC in 3GPP multicast services

Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services (MBMS) have been introduced by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) aiming to efficiently deliver data to mobile users in a one-to-many way. In order to provide reliable multicast transmission, 3GPP recommends exclusively for MBMS the use of a Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanism on the application layer. Raptor codes are standardized as the Application Layer FEC (AL-FEC) scheme over 3GPP MBMS. However, the 3GPP standardized systematic fountain Raptor code is nowadays considered obsolete, since a new variation of the Raptor codes has emerged. This enhanced AL-FEC scheme, named RaptorQ, promises higher protection efficiency and superior flexibility on the provision of demanding mobile multicast services. In this work, we provide an extensive performance evaluation presenting at first a theoretical performance comparison of the newly introduced RaptorQ FEC scheme with its predecessor Raptor code, examining the enhancements that RaptorQ introduces on the AL-FEC protection robustness. Thereafter, to verify the enhanced performance of RaptorQ, we present several simulation results considering the modeling of the AL-FEC protection over multicast services for next generation mobile networks, utilizing the ns-3 simulation environment. Investigating several mobile system parameters in conjunction with FEC encoding parameters, we provide valuable results regarding the impacts of the examined AL-FEC schemes application on the multicast services performance.