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In recent years, the advances in mobile network technologies have revolutionized the paradigm how the users receive video and audio content. With the rise of smart phones and tablets having large screens, users have become more interested than anytime before in watching linear and non-linear TV programs on their mobile devices. This is because the users can fetch nowadays the content using their mobile devices at anytime and any place they are located. Facing this phenomenon, broadcasters are looking for new means to reach the users of digital natives that are interested in watching TV on their mobile devices. As most mobile devices are based on a global 3rd generation partnership project standard, the enhanced multimedia broadcast multicast system (eMBMS) of long term evolution (LTE) network is foreseen as one potential candidate for delivering broadcast services. In order to investigate the capability and limitations of today’s LTE eMBMS network, a field trial was carried out in Munich, Germany. This paper describes the setup of the field trial and presents a comprehensive analysis of the LTE eMBMS technology with respect to performance and future enhancements. The measurement data is compared against simulation models for field strength and path loss of each transmitter, eMBMS useful field strength and received power, and signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR). Moreover, the performance of cyclic prefix (CP) durations that are longer than the standardized values of 16.67 us and 33.33 us is evaluated using the calibrated simulation models. Results have shown that the simulation models can adequately predict the measurement data. Moreover, it is shown that a CP duration of 66.67 us provides a gain in SINR and achieves the best tradeoff in terms of maximum user velocity and performance in networks with limited inter-site distance.

5G-Xcast is a project focused on Broadcast and Multicast Communication Enablers For the Fifth Generation of Wireless Systems. Within the project for the most number of defined use cases it is necessary to provide adequate throughput, delay, reliability, seamless handover etc. For this purpose, multilink approach can be used. This paper describes multilink benefits, its high-level description and implementation to the 5G core architecture for better user experience. Also was described the methodology of the experimental studies to estimate the effectiveness of the proposed solutions. The experiments were conducted in the IRT testbed (Munich) and have shown great increase of the overall QoE.

Highlights • Geological characteristics of deep-sea minerals vary widely. • Deep-sea mineral occurrences differ in their resource potential. • Sizes of most favorable areas of formation influence exploration efforts. Abstract Marine minerals such as manganese nodules, Co-rich ferromanganese crusts, and seafloor massive sulfides are commonly seen as possible future resources that could potentially add to the global raw materials supply. At present, a proper assessment of these resources is not possible due to a severe lack of information regarding their size, distribution, and composition. It is clear, however, that manganese nodules and Co-rich ferromanganese crusts are a vast resource and mining them could have a profound impact on global metal markets, whereas the global resource potential of seafloor massive sulfides appears to be small. These deep-sea mineral commodities are formed by very different geological processes resulting in deposits with distinctly different characteristics. The geological boundary conditions also determine the size of any future mining operations and the area that will be affected by mining. Similarly, the sizes of the most favorable areas that need to be explored for a global resource assessment are also dependent on the geological environment. Size reaches 38 million km2 for manganese nodules, while those for Co-rich crusts (1.7 million km2) and massive sulfides (3.2 million km2) are much smaller. Moreover, different commodities are more abundant in some jurisdictions than in others. While only 19% of the favorable area for manganese nodules lies within the Exclusive Economic Zone of coastal states or is covered by proposals for the extension of the continental shelf, 42% of the favorable areas for massive sulfides and 54% for Co-rich crusts are located in EEZs.