Methods and systems for extending ATSC 3.0 physical layer broadcast to enable convergence with unicast 5G

An apparatus, comprising:

• a first receiver configured to receive a first frame, wherein the first frame is generated at a unicast radio access network, is aligned with respect to a clock, and comprises a first system frame number (SFN);
• a second receiver configured to receive a second frame, wherein the second frame is generated at a broadcast network, is aligned with respect to the clock, is time aligned with respect to the first frame, and comprises a second SFN that is correlated with the first SFN of the first frame;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• determine a first content from the first frame;
• determine a second content from the second frame;
• and
• associate the second content with the first content.

A communication system, comprising:

• a scheduler of a wireless radio access network configured to generate a first frame, wherein the first frame is aligned with respect to a clock and comprises a first system frame number (SFN);
• a transmitter of the wireless radio access network configured to transmit the first frame to a user equipment (UE);
• a scheduler of a broadcast network configured to generate a second frame, wherein the second frame is aligned with respect to the clock, is time aligned with respect to the first frame, and comprises a second SFN that is correlated with the first SFN of the first frame;
• and
• a transmitter of the broadcast network configured to transmit the second frame to the UE,
• wherein the first frame comprises first content and the second frame comprises second content, and
• wherein the second content is associated with the first content.