DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) enables the delivery of live Broadcast television to compatible mobile handheld devices. Combined with mobile Broadcasting, digital broadcasting enables mobile phone users to receive a wide selection of Highquality TV services over a DVB-H network. DVB-H technology is a superset of the very successful DVB-T( Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial ) system for digital terrestrial television, with additional features to meet the specific requirements of handheld The DVB-H standard has been approved by the European Telecommunications Institute (ETSI), and used in mobile TV pilot projects in many countries, including India, Australia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, South Africa, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA. It combines traditional television broadcast standards with elements specific to handheld devices; mobility, smaller screens and antennas, indoor coverage and reliance on battery power. DVB-H not only enables mobile users to experience live broadcast TV, it also complements operators cellular networks, which are available as return channels for interactive TV services.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 1

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

Fig 1. DVB-H Technology for TV broadcast to mobiles devices

The block diagram in Fig 1. Shows TV broadcast using DVB-T for fixed receptions such as televisions and DVB-H for mobile devices.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 2

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 2 TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER OF DVB-H

The conceptual structure of a DVB-H receiver is depicted in Fig 2. It includes a DVBH demodulator and a DVB-H terminal. The DVB-H demodulator includes a DVB-T demodulator, a time-slicing module and a MPE-FEC module. The DVB-T demodulator recovers the MPEG-2 Transport Stream packets from the received DVB-T (EN 300 744 ) RF signal.

Fig 2. Conceptual Structure of DVB-H Receiver

It offers three transmission modes 8K, 4K and 2K with the corresponding Transmitter Parameter Signaling (TPS). Note that the 4K mode, the in-depth interleavers and the DVB-H signaling has been defined while elaborating the DVB-H standard. The time-slicing module, provided by DVB-H, aims to save receiver power consumption while enabling to perform smooth and seamless frequency handover. The MPEFEC module, provided by DVB-H, offers over the physical layer transmission, a complementary forward error correction allowing the receiver to cope with particularly difficult receiving situations. DVB-H builds on DVB-T and is a system where data (typically digital multimedia data) is transmitted in IP datagrams. In order to reduce power consumption in small handheld devices, DVB-H employs a technique called time-slicing, by which 90% of power is saved.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 3

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

An example of using DVB-H for transmission of IP-services is given in Fig 3. In this example, both traditional MPEG-2 services and time-sliced "DVB-H services" are carried over the same multiplex. The handheld terminal decodes /uses IP-services only.

Fig 3. Conceptual description of using DVB-H System (sharing MUX with MPEG2 services)

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 4

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 3 TECHNICAL CHARECTERISTICS

3.1 Time slicing

Time slicing is a technique used by the DVB-H technology for achieving high powersaving effect on terminal devices. It is based on the time-multiplexed transmission of different services. DVB-H transmits large pieces of data in bursts, allowing the receiver to be switched off in inactive periods. The result is power savings of up to 90% - and the same inactive receiver could be used to monitor neighboring cells for seamless handovers. Each burst may contain up to two megabits of data (including parity bits). There are 64 parity bits for each 191 data bits, protected by Reed-Solomon codes. The front end of the receiver switches on only for the time interval when the data burst of a selected service is on air. Within this short period of time a high data rate is received which can be stored in a buffer. This buffer can either store the downloaded applications or play out live streams. The achievable power saving depends on the relation of the on/off-time of the bursts as shown in Fig 4. If there are approximately ten or more bursted services in a DVB-H stream, the rate of the power saving for the front end could be up to 90%.

Fig 4. Burst Duration Diagram

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 5

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

In order to drastically reduce power consumption, one would ideally like the receiver to demodulate and decode only the 2.5% portion of interest, and not the full MPEG-2TS. With time slicing this is possible, since the MPE sections of a particular ES are sent in high bit rate bursts instead of with a constant low bit rate. During the time between the bursts in the off-time no sections of the particular ES are transmitted. This allows the receiver to power off completely during off-time. The receiver will, however, have to know when to power on again to receive the next burst against transmission errors.

Fig 4.1. Example of time slicing diagram

Fig 4.1 shows the example for time slicing where each time slot is allotted for different DVBH services and different bursts are allotted for different TV programs.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 6

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

3.2 MPE-FEC (Forward Error Correction for Multi Protocol Encapsulated data)
The objective of the MPE-FEC is to improve the C/N- and Doppler performance in mobile channels and to improve the tolerance to impulse interference. This is accomplished through the introduction of an additional level of error correction at the MPE layer. By adding parity information calculated from the datagrams and sending this parity data in separate MPE-FEC sections, error-free datagrams can be output after MPE-FEC decoding despite a very bad reception condition. This MPE-FEC scheme should allow high-speed single antenna DVB-T reception using 8K/16-QAM or even 8K/64-QAM signals. In addition MPE-FEC provides good immunity to impulse interference. When time slicing and MPE-FEC are used together, one Time Slice burst carries exactly one MPE-FEC frame. The first part of the burst is the MPE sections carrying the IP datagrams belonging to the MPE-FEC frame. Immediately following the last MPE section is the first MPE-FEC section carrying the parity bytes. All sections contain a table boundary flag; this is set high in the last MPE section to indicate this is the last MPE section of the MPE-FEC frame. If all the MPE sections within the burst have been received correctly the receiver can then neglect the MPE-FEC sections and go to sleep until the next burst. All sections contain a frame boundary flag, this is set high in the last MPE-FEC section to indicate that this is the last MPE-FEC section and hence the end of the MPE-FEC frame.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 7

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

3.2.1 Forward error correction Forward error correction (FEC) or channel coding is a technique used for controlling errors in data transmission over unreliable or noisy communication channels. The central idea is the sender encodes their message in a redundant way by using an error-correcting code (ECC). The American mathematician Richard Hamming pioneered this field in the 1940s and invented the first error-correcting code in 1950: the code. For the forward error correction using RS Code, there are 64 parity bits for each 191 data bits, protected by Reed-Solomon codes. The redundancy allows the receiver to detect a limited number of errors that may occur anywhere in the message, and often to correct these errors without retransmission. FEC gives the receiver the ability to correct errors without needing a reverse channel to request retransmission of data, but at the cost of a fixed, higher forward channel bandwidth. FEC is therefore applied in situations where retransmissions are costly or impossible, such as oneway communication links and when transmitting to multiple receivers in multicast. FEC information is usually added to mass storage devices to enable recovery of corrupted data, and is widely used in modems.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 8

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

3.2.2 Multi Protocol Encapsulation (MPE):

Multiprotocol Encapsulation, or MPE for short, is a Data link layer protocol defined by DVB which has been published as part of ETSI. It provides means to carry packet oriented protocols (like for instance IP) on top of MPEG transport stream (TS).The Fig 5. shows the encapsulation of data from IP datagram to TS packets.

Fig 5. Multi protocol encapsulation

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 9

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 4 DVB-H SIGNALING:

The objective of the DVB-H signaling is to provide a robust and easy-to-access signaling to the DVB-H receivers, thus enhancing and speeding up service discovery. TPS is a very robust signaling channel allowing TPS-lock in a demodulator with very low C/N-values. TPS provides also a faster way to access signaling than demodulating and decoding the Service Information (SI) or the MPE-section header.

4.1 Frequencies:

DVB-H is designed to work in the following bands: 1. VHF-III (170-230 MHz, or a portion of it) 2. UHF-IV/V (470-862 MHz, or a portion of it) 3. L (1.452-1.492 GHz)

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 10

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 5 4K MODE AND IN-DEPTH INTERLEAVERS

The objective of the 4K mode is to improve network planning flexibility by trading off mobility and SFN size. To further improve robustness of the DVB-T 2K and 4K modes in a mobile environment and impulse noise reception conditions, an in-depth symbol interleaver is also standardized. The additional 4K transmission mode is a scaled set of the parameters defined for the 2K and 8K transmission modes. It aims to offer an additional trade-off between Single Frequency Network (SFN) cell size and mobile reception performance, providing an additional degree of flexibility for network planning. Terms of the trade-off can be expressed as follows: 1. The DVB-T 8K mode can be used both for single transmitter operation and for small, medium and large SFNs.It provides a Doppler tolerance allowing high speed reception. 2. The DVB-T 4K mode can be used both for single transmitter operation and for small and medium SFNs. It provides a Doppler tolerance allowing very high speed reception. 3. The DVB-T 2K mode is suitable for single transmitter operation and for small SFNs with limited transmitter distances. It provides a Doppler tolerance allowing extremely high speed reception. For 2K and 4K modes the in-depth interleavers increase the flexibility of the symbol interleaving, by decoupling the choice of the inner interleaver from the transmission mode used. This flexibility allows a 2K or 4K signal to take benefit of the memory of the 8K symbol interleaver to effectively quadruple (for 2K) or double (for 4K) the symbol interleaver depth to improve reception in fading channels. This provides also an extra level of protection against short noise impulses caused by, e.g. ignition interference and interference from various electrical appliances.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 11

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 6 ADVANTAGES OF DVB-H

It provides the best user experience in the mobile environment, with an energy-saving handset that is only on 10-25% of the time, program guide, and soft loss-free handover and in building coverage. It offers an excellent-quality picture and audio quality when desired. Time-slicing technology (meaning the DVB-H receiver is in sleep mode mostly and wakes up to receive the data) saves up to 90% of power compared to non-time sliced technologies. Efficient use of bandwidth enables up to 55 mobile channels plus scalability. Another use of DVB-H is in mobile devices such as portable video recorders (PVRs). These are effectively portable set top boxes. Most consist for example of a hard disk, DVD reader,CPU, computer memory, 6 inch LCD screen and with the ability to download and record digital TV broadcasts, MP3 music, films, photos ; play it all back as and when required whilst on the move. DVB-H is having an ability to receive 15Mbit/s in an 8MHz channel and in a wide area single frequency network (SFN) at high speed. These requirements were drawn up after much debate and with an eye on emerging convergence devices providing video services and other broadcast data services to 2.5G and 3G handheld devices.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 12

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 7 FUTURE ENHANCEMENT

1. Using LPDC (Low-density parity-check) at receiver rather than RS Coding since RS coding takes a long time for coding and decoding. 2. Use of OFDM modulation techniques. 7.1. Case study A recent pilot mobile TV project1 revealed the popularity of mobile TV services and the key issues for participants to use mobile TV services: 1. Easy, intuitive services. 2. Good technical functionality and reliability. 3. Content suitable for short-period viewing.

DVB-H

Fig 6. Worldwide forecast of Mobile TV users by technology

From the Fig 6. DVB-H technology is predicted to be the globally preferred technology for the broadcast mobile TV.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 13

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION
Mobile TV is one of the fastest growing and expanding businesses in the technology industry. Easily portable devices such as smart phones and tablet computers have helped push the mobile on-demand TV business sky high. Advertising for devices capable of using mobile television is expected to reach 1.4 billion by 2015. As of 2010, some 17.6 million people in the United States were actively using TV on their mobile. This number is expected to climb to 52 million viewers within four years. ESPN changed the sports landscape by being the first sports network to offer sports games to stream live online for mobile television viewers. These companies and many more are quickly helping to expand the use of TV on portable electronics. With the rise of mobile media, carriers have been scrambling to keep up with consumer demands. AT&T, Metro PCS, and Verizon are all working to create LTE networks which will have the ability to increase available data usage and speed up connection times to work with mobile TV users.

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 14

DVB-H BROADCAST MOBILE

CHAPTER 9 REFERENCES
[1] ETSI EN 300 744: "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Framing structure, channel coding and modulation for digital terrestrial television". (DVB-T). [2] ETSI EN 300 468: "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Specification for Service Information (SI) in DVB systems". (DVB-SI). [3] ETSI EN 301 192: "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); DVB specification for data broadcasting". (DVB-DATA). [4] ETSI TS 101 191: "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); DVB mega-frame for Single Frequency Network (SFN) synchronization". [5] ISO/IEC 7498-1: "Information technology - Open Systems Interconnection - Basic Reference Model: The Basic Model".

VVCE, Dept E&C

Page 15