DVB-H

Abstract: DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) is the digital broadcast standard for transmitting broadcast content to handheld terminal devices, developed by the International DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) Project. DVB-H is based on the DVB-T standard for digital terrestrial television but tailored to the special requirements of the pocket-size class of receivers. The IP Datacast specification, which was also recently standardized, contributes the higher layer protocols to build a complete end-to-end system. This article presents an overview of the DVB-H and IP Datacast systems with respect to features and technology. An outlook on DVB-H network deployment is given

Abstract: The digitization of traditional broadcast systems has made significant progress in recent years. This development could be observed recently with respect to the standard for digital terrestrial television, DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial), which is already in operation in many countries throughout the world. Currently, the system is being rolled out in Germany and the UK (the Freeview DTT platform). DVB-T has also started in the Netherlands and Italy and was announced to start in France in early 2005; further countries have plans to start services in the near future. In many countries, the decision to select DVB-T as the terrestrial television system was based on the exceptional features of the DVB-T standard, among them the possibility to receive broadcast services also with portable devices and even in cars.

Abstract: Operators are introducing mobile television and digital video content services globally. The Handbook of Mobile Broadcasting addresses all aspects of these services, providing a comprehensive reference on DVB-H, DMB, ISDB-T, and MediaFLO. Featuring contributions from experts in the field, the text presents technical standards and distribution protocols, offering detailed coverage of video coding, including design methodology and error resilience techniques; state-of-the-art technologies such as signaling, optimization, implementation, and simulation; and applications of mobile broadcasting, including emerging areas and new interactive services.

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the potential gain that can be obtained in DVB-H using application layer forward error correction (AL-FEC) to perform a multi-burst protection of the transmission for improving the reception of streaming services for mobile terminals. Compared to the conventional approach with link layer multi protocol encapsulation FEC (MPE-FEC), this technique allows to increase the robustness of the DVB-H transmission not only as a function of the capacity devoted for error repair (FEC overhead), but also as a function of the number of bursts jointly encoded. The main drawback of this approach is an increase of the network latency, that can be translated into a larger service access time, and, in the case of mobile TV, a larger zapping time between channels, which is currently seen as a crucial parameter for DVB-H usability. In this paper the performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using field measurements. We evaluate the gain compared to MPE-FEC in terms of reduced IP packet error rate of the streaming service as a function of the FEC overhead and the latency introduced. Moreover, simulations have been performed to quantify feasible link margin gains. We also discuss techniques to reduce and hide the zapping time from the perception of the users.