This work presents a potential solution for enabling the use of multicast in the 5G New Radio Release 17, called 5G NR Mixed Mode. The proposed multicast/broadcast mode follows one of the two approaches envisaged in 3GPP, which enables a dynamic and seamless switching between unicast and multicast, both in the downlink and the uplink. This paper also provides a performance evaluation of several IMT-2020 KPIs, including available data rate and spectral efficiency, user and control plane latencies, energy efficiency, mobility highlighting the potential advantages of this solution over unicast in relevant scenarios. Finally, other multipoint-based KPIs such as coverage or packet loss rate are also evaluated by means of system level simulations.
The first release of 5th Generation (5G) technology from 3 rd Generation Project Partnership (3GPP) Rel'15 has been completed in December 2018. An open issue with this release of standards is that it only supports unicast communications in the core network and Point-To-Point (PTP) transmissions in the Radio Access Network (RAN), and does not support multicast/broadcast communications and Point-To-Multipoint (PTM) transmissions, which are 3GPP system requirements for 5G applications in a number of vertical sectors, such as Automotive, Airborne Communications, Internet-of-Things, Media & Entertainment, and Public Warning & Safety systems. In this article, we present novel mechanisms for enhancing the 5G unicast architecture with minimal footprint, to enable efficient PTM transmissions in the RAN, and to support multicast communications in the Rel'15 core as an in-built delivery optimization feature of the system. This approach will enable completely new levels of network management and delivery cost-efficiency
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