Multicast-broadcast single-frequency network

Multicast-Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) is a communications channel defined in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), making it possible to efficiently send the same data to many mobiles in adjacent cells. MBSFN is a multicasting channel, which is a channel where data is addressed to a group of subscribing users (another LTE example is the Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH)). MBSFN can deliver services such as Mobile TV using the LTE infrastructure, and is a competitor for DVB-H-based TV broadcast.

MBSFN is a transmission mode which exploits an OFDM radio interface to send multicast or broadcast data as a multicell transmission over a synchronized single frequency network. The transmissions from the multiple cells are sufficiently tightly synchronized for each to arrive at the UE within the OFDM Cyclic Prefix (CP) so as to avoid Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI). In effect, this makes the MBSFN transmission appear to a UE as a transmission from a single large cell, dramatically increasing the Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) due to the absence of inter-cell interference. See 3GPP TS36.201 and TSs36.300.