A Study on Data Dissemination Techniques in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Cellular networks are undergoing a major shift in their deployment and optimization. Regardless the deployment of LTE led to an overall performance increase in cellular networks, disseminating data to multiple users inside a cell is still under development. This dissemination is currently achieved via unicast connections, which is inefficient in terms of throughput and power consumption because the antenna is sending duplicated data to co-located users. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) proposed a new standard to be able to multicast and broadcast information over cellular networks. However, different studies stated that this solution might have problems related to the spectrum, and new multicasting alternatives which provide better performance have appeared. Since these new alternatives came up, a race for the control of cellular multicast/broadcast has started. In this paper, we collect, analyze and compare the leading technologies that enable the system to efficiently disseminate data over cellular networks, and conclude by indicating which ones are the most likely to succeed.