In recent years, mobile operators are observing a growing demand of multicast services over radio cellular networks. In this scenario, multicasting is the technology exploited to serve a group of users who simultaneously request the same data content. Since multicast applications are expected to be massively exchanged over the forthcoming fifth generation (5G) systems, the third-generation partnership project (3GPP) defined the multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) standard. MBMS supports multicast services over long-term evolution (LTE), and the 4G wireless technology provides high quality services in mobile environments. Nevertheless, several issues related to the management of MBMS services together with more traditional unicast services are still open. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the main challenges in supporting heterogeneous traffic over LTE with particular attention to resource management, considered as the key aspect for an effective provisioning of mobile multimedia services over cellular networks.
The multimedia broadcast/multicast service
