Provision of local and mobile services in DVB-T networks

Abstract

Nowadays, the main standard around the world for digital terrestrial TV broadcasting is DVB-T. The increase of services and applications such as High Definition TV (HDTV) and Three Dimensions TV (3DTV) lead to the definition of DVB-T2. This new standard improves capacity and quality of the services; however, it requires a new network infrastructure. DVB-T was designed for fixes reception, with a physical layer which does not have enough robustness for mobile services. In this article, the following technical solutions are proposed: hierarchical modulation, Scalable Video Coding (SVC), and forward error correction mechanisms in application layer (AL-FEC) in order to offer mobile DVB-T services to vehicles and Local Area Services (LSA) in Single Frequency Networks (SFN). The results are obtained through field measurements, lab tests and dynamic simulations in the city of Valencia (Spain).