  Multi-connectivity has emerged as a key enabler for providing seamless
connectivity in cellular mobile networks. However, its potential for improving
the quality of multicast transmissions has remained unexplored. In this paper,
we investigate the use of multi-connectivity in wireless multicast streaming.
Multi-connectivity can significantly improve the performance of multicast
services. It especially benefits the cell edge users who often suffer from poor
channel conditions. In this work, we assess the impact of multi-connectivity on
the performance of multicast streaming. We propose procedures for establishing
multi-connectivity in a multicast system and address the associated resource
allocation problem. We prove that the optimal resource allocation problem is
NP-hard. We propose a greedy approximation algorithm for this problem and prove
that no other polynomial-time algorithm can provide a better approximation.
Since video streaming is the primary use case under consideration here, we use
traces from actual videos to generate realistic video traffic patterns in our
simulations. Our simulation results clearly establish that multi-connectivity
results in considerable performance improvement in multicast streaming.
