On the use of packet-level FEC and data carousels for the delivery of broadcast/multicast services to mobile terminals

In broadcast wireless networks, the options for reliable delivery are limited when there is no return link or a return link is not deemed cost-efficient due to the system resource requirements it introduces. In this paper we focus our attention on two reliable transport mechanisms that become relevant for the non real time delivery of files: packet-level Forward Error Correction (FEC) and data carousels. Both techniques perform error recovery at the expense of redundant data transmission and content repetition respectively. We demonstrate that their joint design may lead to significant resource savings.