1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate in general to a scheduling apparatus and method for a multicast broadcast service and more specifically to a scheduling apparatus and method for a multicast broadcast service using a scheduling block for a multicast broadcast service.
2. Related Art
A 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile communication system, which is currently being standardized, is a next generation communication system which is evolved to be capable of providing a variety of high-speed data services to a packet-based mobile communication network. For example, a service technique that makes it possible to transmit multimedia contents via a mobile communication network in a broadcast form or a multicast form known as a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) is being introduced together with a voice service and a packet service.
In the MBMS, multimedia is transmitted via a radio network in a broadcast form or a multicast form, and so it is possible to provide a plurality of users with a service using a small radio resource. In the LTE system, it is possible to allocate a radio resource for the MBMS in a time and frequency domain using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) as a multiple access method. A multicast broadcast service is supported not only in the 3GPP LTE system, but also IEEE 802.16m.
In the current LTE system, a multicast control channel (MCCH) and an MBMS traffic channel (MTCH) are defined as logical channels for providing the MBMS. The two channels correspond to multicast channels (MCH) which are transport channels, and the MCH corresponds to a physical multicast channel (PMCH), a physical channel.
The MTCH is used to transmit MBMS data traffic, and one MTCH corresponds to each MBMS. The MCCH transmits control information of the MTCH(s) and session control information related to the MBMS.
User equipment (UE) which uses the MBMS receives system information transmitted through a broadcast channel (BCH) and can acquire allocation information of a radio frame and a subframe through which the MBMS is provided from the received system information.
One or more MTCH(s) through which MBMS data is transmitted may be multiplexed into one MCH and then transmitted for efficient use of the radio resource. That is, a variety of MBMSs may be multiplexed into and transmitted through one MCH, and it may be dynamically changed at each scheduling period or interval. That is, since a location of a resource allocated to a specific MBMS which the UE desires to receive is variable, the UE can be provided with a desired MBMS only when a location of a subframe including a corresponding MBMS is recognized exactly.
Thus, in order for the UE to receive a desired MBMS, a scheme capable of efficiently transmitting scheduling information between services (of the MTCH) to the UE is required.