Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving multimedia broadcast multicast services via a dedicated downlink carrier

A method for receiving multimedia broadcast multicast services (MBMS) data and unicast data comprising:

• providing a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) having a receiver switchable between reception on a MBMS carrier and a unicast carrier;
• receiving at least (K+ν) MBMS encoded packets per superframe via the MBMS carrier, where K is the number of packets to be recovered in a superframe and value ν is a positive integer determined based upon select reception criteria;
• and
• decoding the received at least (K+ν) MBMS encoded packets per superframe to recover the K MBMS data packets.

A network station configured for wireless communication of multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) data and unicast data comprising:

• a buffer configured to buffer K MBMS data packets for a MBMS to be transmitted;
• an encoder configured to encode the K MBMS data packets to a larger number N of MBMS encoded packets, where N is selected to be greater than a number of encoded packets determined to be sufficient to recover the K MBMS data packets;
• and
• a transceiver configured to generate a superframe for carrying the N MBMS encoded packets and to transmit the superframe via a MBMS carrier for MBMS transmissions that is different than a unicast carrier.

A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for receiving multimedia broadcast multicast services (MBMS) data and unicast data comprising:

• a carrier switchable transceiver configured to switch between reception on a MBMS carrier and reception on a unicast carrier;
• a controller configured to switch the transceiver to MBMS carrier reception to receive at least (K+ν) MBMS encoded packets per superframe via the MBMS carrier, where K is the number of packets to be recovered in a superframe and value ν is a positive integer determined based upon select reception criteria;
• and
• a decoder configured to decode the received at least (K+ν) MBMS encoded packets per superframe to recover the K MBMS data packets.