Subband CQI Feedback-Based Multicast Resource Allocation in MIMO-OFDMA Networks

Multicast transmission is one of the key enablers toward a more spectral-and energy-efficient distribution of multimedia content in current and envisaged cellular networks. In order to ensure that all users in a multicast group are able to correctly decode the received data, most multicast techniques adopt rather conservative strategies that select a very robust modulation and coding scheme (MCS) whose characteristics are determined by the propagation conditions experienced by the worst user in the group. Obviously, this robustness comes at the prize of a low spectral efficiency. Moreover, in the specific context of wideband communication systems, the selection of the multicast MCS has often relied on the use of wideband channel quality indicators (CQIs) providing rather imprecise information regarding the potential capacity of the multicast channel. Only recently has the per-subband CQI been used to improve the spectral efficiency of the system without compromising the link robustness. However, most subband-CQI multicast schemes proposed so far rely on overpessimistic assumptions that preclude the achievement of high data rates. In this paper, novel subband CQI-based multicast strategies are proposed that, relying on the selection of more spectrally efficient transmission modes, lead to increased data rates while still being able to fulfill prescribed quality of service metrics. To this end, a constrained optimization problem is posed that seeks to maximize the data rate of the whole multicast group while ensuring that the average block error rate for all users remains below a threshold and that a minimum data rate is guaranteed for all users in the group.