Abstract
This paper performs a comparison of multicast/broadcast services (MBS) support in Long Term Evolution Advanced(LTE-A) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) IEEE 802.16m. Firstly, the main technicalfeatures of both standards concerning MBS operation are presented. It is shown that WiMAX offers higher unicast/MBSmultiplexing flexibility as it supports both frequency and time multiplexing schemes, whereas LTE-A only includes timemultiplexing. Besides, only WiMAX supports multi-antenna transmission. Next, the results of two simulation-based assess-ments are presented. In the former, it is considered a scenario with all cells transmitting the same MBS service. The effect ofinter-site distance (ISD) on the maximum MBS data rate is evaluated. Results show that WiMAX configurations outperformLTE-A for small ISD. This is because WiMAX provides a higher number of resources dedicated to data transmission for thesame bandwidth. Furthermore, some WiMAX configurations support two spatially multiplexed data streams. With higherISDs, LTE-A outperforms single-stream WiMAX configurations. In the second assessment, a MBSFN area surrounded byinterfering cells is considered to compare unicast/MBS multiplexing performance. The higher maximum MBS data rate isachieved in WiMAX with time division multiplexing, which is precisely the only alternative included in LTE-A
