MBMS Audience Counting via Distributed Reporting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current MBMS systems face inefficiencies in counting audience size due to resource-intensive storage of UE contexts in network elements, particularly in enhanced broadcast mode where audience counting is not supported, leading to wastage of air interface resources and low efficiency.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where lower-level network elements report MBMS audience data to a statistical analysis element, allowing audience counting in multicast mode without requiring all network elements to store UE contexts, thereby reducing resource consumption and enabling audience counting in enhanced broadcast mode.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If all network elements store UE contexts to count MBMS audience in multicast mode, then audience counting capability is achieved, but network resource consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the audience counting function from individual network elements that would need to store all UE contexts, and instead implements a distributed reporting mechanism where only local audience data is reported to a statistical analysis element. This eliminates the need for comprehensive UE context storage at each network element while maintaining accurate audience counting capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the audience counting process into distributed local reporting by lower-level network elements and centralized statistical analysis. Each network element only needs to report local audience information rather than storing complete UE contexts, reducing overall network resource consumption while achieving accurate audience measurement.
2Loss of energy
If MBMS enhanced broadcast mode is used to save network resources, then air interface resource utilization improves, but audience counting capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal statistical analysis mechanism that works across both MBMS multicast mode and enhanced broadcast mode. The lower-level network elements report audience data in both modes, and the statistical analysis element processes this data accordingly, enabling audience counting functionality in enhanced broadcast mode without compromising air interface resource utilization efficiency.
3Measurement precision
If UE contexts are stored in each network element for multicast mode, then accurate audience measurement is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex UE context storage and management functionality from individual network elements and consolidates it into a statistical analysis element. Lower-level network elements only need to perform simple local audience counting and reporting, significantly reducing their complexity while maintaining accurate audience measurement through centralized statistical processing.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method for counting the audience of multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) includes: by a first network element (NE), counting MBMS audience on the first NE; and reporting the MBMS audience counted on the first NE to a statistical analysis NE so that the statistical analysis NE gets an MBMS audience counting result. The invention also discloses a statistical analysis NE, a communication NE, and a system for counting MBMS audience. The invention overcomes the waste of resources on audience counting in multicast mode and provides a feasible method for counting audience in enhanced broadcast mode.