Multicast Communication Strategies in Wireless Networks
Summary
Multicast communication in wireless networks enables the simultaneous delivery of identical content to multiple receivers, optimising spectrum use and energy consumption for applications such as live video streaming, software updates and emergency alerts. Central to effective multicast are techniques that contend with wireless channel heterogeneity, user mobility and stringent quality‐of‐service requirements. Key strategies include adaptive modulation and coding, layered transmission to offer service tiers, network coding to enhance robustness against packet loss, and power‐domain multiplexing to support diverse channel conditions. Recent advances have introduced subgrouping of receivers by channel quality, combined with non‐orthogonal multiple access to further boost spectral efficiency. Cross‐layer designs involving software‐defined networking and edge caching promise flexible control and low latency, while single‐frequency networks and mesh topologies extend coverage and reliability. Real-world deployments in 5G and emerging 6G systems are demonstrating the global significance of multicast for smart cities, connected vehicles and Internet-of-Things ecosystems.
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Multicast Communication Strategies in Wireless Networks publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in multicast communication strategies in wireless networks across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Multicast Communication: One-to-many transmission method delivering identical data streams to multiple recipients simultaneously.
Radio Resource Management (RRM): Allocation and coordination of spectrum, power and time resources to meet service requirements and optimise network performance.
Network Coding: Technique that combines data packets algebraically before transmission to improve throughput and resilience against losses in point-to-multipoint links.
Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA): Access mechanism that superimposes signals for multiple users in the power domain, enabling concurrent transmissions on the same frequency resources.
Subgrouping: Strategy of clustering multicast receivers into subsets based on channel conditions or quality-of-service needs for tailored transmission parameters.
eMBMS: Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service, the LTE-Advanced standard extension for high-efficiency point-to-multipoint multimedia delivery.
References
- Multi-rate multicasting aided NOMA for addressing the multiuser diversity in beyond 5G. Computer Networks (2025).
- Resource-Allocation Frameworks for Network-Coded Layered Multimedia Multicast Services. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (2015).
- Nonorthogonal Multiple Access and Subgrouping for Improved Resource Allocation in Multicast 5G NR. IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (2022).
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