Multi-RAT Multicast 360° Video Delivery

360° video streaming is rapidly progressing towards the multimedia industry, offering an interactive user experience but also challenging telco operators due to the huge volume of the video data and the user channel dynamics. We propose a software defined transport layer proxy overlay architecture, that builds on top of existing standard technologies, to facilitate hybrid multicast/unicast 360° video delivery as a service-particularly combining LTE multicast and WiFi unicast transmissions. In addition we holistically define the emergent optimization problem, where we jointly consider network association, multicast/unicast scheduling, and spectrum/bandwidth management in both networks, taking also into consideration user specific preferences, e.g., the popularity of the video tiles. The proposed framework is evaluated through a series of simulation based experiments following 3GPP standard parameters and real 360° video traces. Our findings reveal significantly increase in the user utility, particularly when the wireless spectrum is limited.