Min-max load balancing scheme for mixed multicast and unicast services in LTE networks

To avoid the traffic congestion in long term evolution (LTE) networks, a min-max load balancing (LB) scheme is proposed to minimize the demanded radio resources of the maximum loaded cell. For the mixed multicast and unicast services, multicast services are transmitted by single frequency network (SFN) mode and unicast services are delivered with point-to-point (PTP) mode. The min-max LB takes into account point-to-multipoint (PTM) mode for multicast services and selects the proper transmission mode between SFN and PTM for each multicast service to minimize the demanded radio resources of the maximum loaded cell. Based on the solution of this minimization problem, if the maximum loaded cell does not overload, the min-max LB will change PTM mode into SFN mode for multicast services to achieve high quality of service (QoS). Simulation results show that the proposed min-max LB scheme requires less radio resources from the maximum loaded cell than SFN mode for all multicast services.