In my opionion "the responsible" to the delay in the mobile TV using DVB-H in some countries are the television and mobile phone operators which are suffering the consequences of the global economic crisis. As I read in an article, in order to develop DVB-H the mobile/TV operator, need to reinforce and adapt the current DVB-T infrastructure. But that suppose a cost to them, and the operators are experimentiing income reductions due the economic crisis, and they need to cut their investment (costs) in order to maintain their margins. Operators invest their limited resources in finishing and enhancing their current 3G/3.5G network that they need to amortize.
there are challenges aplenty across the whole mobile TV technology spectrum
I believe mobile TV is createing a new ecosystem for the mobile industry. It brings together different indsutires broadcast companies, manufacturers, cable TV and the movie industry.
I decide to check how many mobile phone are available that support this technologyes and there are a few in Europe, and not all are available in the market, so why operators are going to invest in a technology which the mass market can't access?
I decided to do this blog about mobile TV because I think is a hot current topic. Technology standards have been set, spectrum has been allocated in the different countries and the content is there. However, the industry is fragmented, with different markets sustaining different standards and spectrums bands. Content providers, broadcasters and handset manufacturers are working and competeing for market share. Mobile TV is an opportunity to mobile network operators, which can create differentiation and new revenue incomes to maintain a competitive position,and reap the benefits of a new service.
I can say that the mobile television market is still young. Mobile TV is a reality but is an emerging service which is still far from being a mass-market introduced mobile service.
Mobile TV is a technology which is receiving a strong worldwide interest, wireless broadcasters, handset manufacturers and standardization bodies have been developing and researching technologies to enable and improve this service.
As I discussed in this blog, in the past decade different standards have been proposed for delivering mobile TV, such as DVB-H, T-DMB, MediaFLO and so on. Mobile TV wants to provide to end users access to their favorite TV programs, anytime and anywhere on their handset devices. They can receive multimedia content either live (broadcast) or on-demand. Mobile TV firms want solutions to offer market standards that leverages the technology to provide the best, modular, end-to-end revenue generating solutions.
Experts say that mobile TV will be a killing application in the mass mobile service market, but at least here in Europe from what I can see nowadays (at least here in Spain and in the Netherlands) is that this service is far from being a service that captures the mobile phone users. Trials have been made in different countries (Barcelona World Mobile Congress 2008 ), and there is a positive feedback from the experiences.
I devoted some entries to discuss about unicast mobile TV services which already exist as part of the 3G/3.5G services, and in most of the countries is the only available option to access to TV-on-demand content. I have considered necessary to cover which technologies and standards are behind this service which has an important limitation, is not able to cope with large audience simultaneously and to deliver live programs. A lot of money has been invested on 3G technologies (UMTS) and companies consider essential to exploit their infrastructure providing services to get funds in return of their investment, and mobile TV is an option.
Due to spectrum scarcity, the broadcast technology selected needs to satisfy operators needs which share frequencies and access networks.
But the interesting discussion is on broadcast mobile TV where the selection for a mobile TV broadcast technology is an open issue. Mobile network operators can be able to offer scalable, efficient, high-quality access to content service to unlimited number of users by leveraging mobile TV broadcast technologies, but also maintain the inband transmission over cellular (3G and 4G) to enable contextual interactive services.
Four broadcast technologies, which I described, are dominating the broadcast mobile TV market T-DMB, DAB-IP, DVB-H and FLO. As I mentioned none of these standards is really global yet, but they are all fairly the standard dominant in some areas.
Market fragmentation can be a problem, because according to the literature to a successful adoption an penetration of a technology, standards interoperability is important. Stabilization of standards is important, so could be necessary a common standard in order to reduce market fragmentation caused by different alternatives for mobile TV transmission. Currently DVB-H is the strongest standard for future It is already the most widely extended and used standard in Europe and is spreading in other non-European countries. In this case the bandwagon effect is taking place, DVB-H was one of the first market open-standards and now has an advantage over later competing standards.
DVB-H is the technology chose by the EU, as the European standard for the development of mobile TV. One of the reasons of the election is because DVB-H has its roots in the adopted and well established in Europe digital TV standard DVB-T. So DVB-H based on the DVB-T standard is to a large extend compatible, and is spectrally compatible with DVB-T networks.
In Europe, the DVB-H technology leads the way in the deployment and implementation of broadcast networks but is facing uncertainties linked to regulatory and business issues in some countries that are delaying the implementation and start up . This delay from my point of view can affect the DVB-H top standard position, because may have to compete with alternative technologies.
According to the literature the selection of an standard determines the options to configure the market. So the decisions that the EU does about the adoption of an standard will have consequences in the mobile TV industry.
There are many interest on this game, telecommunication companies, mobile handset manufacturers, service providers, etc defend their own technologies.
On the broadcast mobile TV debate the wirless industry leaders are exerting pressure to the European Commision to allow other technologies to compete in the emerging mobile TV market rather than supporting and forcing a single technological standard. Firms like the FLO group defend a standard neutrality in Europe. Industry leaders are right when they say that mobile TV is a cutting-edge service, a case where only time and a flexible market will tell which technology will provide the best service.
According to the literature in a European and also in a national level there is a tendency to link standards to legislation, and the EU goal is to satisfy the global requirements laid down in laws and recommendations, and that’s what they are doing with mobile TV and DVB-H.
I think that the EU is insisting in an early stage on a particular standard, when they do not know that maybe other available alternatives will better suite the market. From my point of view only time and a flexible market will show which technology will suite most the different actors. According to the literature the conversion to a new standard is costly, because needs to face the actual installed base influenced by the network effect, so is necessary to choose the best standard without rushing.
In other areas the EU position was to defend a neutral regulation, letting market actors decide upon the rollout of an standard, in all this cases the different actors benefit from that situation of “freedom”.
According to the literature variety-reducing standards have positive and negative effects to the industry. So I can understand EU position , Europe took a big lead over the US in mobile services by establishing a single GSM standard so mobile phone users can roam across the different countries of the continent (literature case), so they want to ensure that mobile TV actors will not face different rules in each state. I think that this position will contribute to innovation, because with a single standard, companies will invest with confidence in new innovative technologies supported by the selected standard (reduce risk). That will benefit international trade.
But has negative effect, is too early to determine which is the better standard, this is the reason why different tests and studies have been done in different countries. And also the EU position will exclude other firms (lock-in effect) that are applying other technologies. This situation is an anticompetitive-effect of the standards.
To sump up, mobile TV is a complex issue with many different actors and technologies, ut From my point of view mobile actors require integration capabilities in demanding multi-vendor, multi-technology environments, in order to quickly cope with the different Mobile TV solutions.
MediaFLO Media Forward Link Only, is a technology proposed by QualComm and uses a netwotk that uses a limit number of high-power transmission towers to deliver high-quality streaming multimedia. This technology was first owned by QulaComm and now further enhanced by QualComm jointly with the FLO Forum (a multy-company initiative) that works for the efficient transmission of multiple multimedia streams to mobile devices. FLO technology was designed specifically for the economical and efficient distribution of multimedia content to millions of wireless users. (MediaFLO)
MediaFLO uses OFDM transmission (like DVB-H) with approximately 4K carriers with QPSK or 16-QAM modulation of the carriers. It also uses division multiplexing, that is similar to what DVB-H refers to as a time slicing (check last entree), to transmit specific content at specific time intervals.
MediaFLO can be technically characterized as follows (Yeun, 2007): - Turbo code algorithms: that allow more effective aggressive error correction than is possible using the traditional Viterbi coding present in other systems. - Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC): If the packet is received perfectly, then the receiver does not have to calculate the Reed Solomon outer code, allowing additional receiver power savings. - Time interleaving data: contribute to reduce the impact of impulse noise and changing multi-path, but can affect negatively increasing channel acquisition time, making surfing difficult (change channels).
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has ratified four other FLO-standard TIA-1099, 1102, 1103 and 1004 - that meet the interface specification for FLO satellite, with the minimum performance standards for devices with performance standards less transmitter, and the application protocol for testing devices and transmitters, respectively (Qualcomm, 2007).
MediaFLO is an ITU-R recommended mobile broadcast technology. Recently (MediaFLO Forum, 2009) MediaFLO Technologies received the approval of ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards), they publish ETSI TS 1 02 589, “Forward Link Only Air Interface; Specification for Terrestrial Mobile; Multimedia Multicast.” According to the literature of the lecture, is important for a technology, critical in wireless environment, to ensure a global standard. This fact is important to the industry stakeholders, because operators have the freedom to use the technology in their business model, regulators gain the ability to use and provide a technology which use neutral spectrum policy using an open standard, and also benefits the semiconductors and electronic component manufacturers that have access to a new market based on FLO mobile broadcast solutions. MediaFLO is a technology that according the corporative web site is actually working in USA (2007) and trials have been completed in Japan, UK, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc.
In U.S. the two largest wireless carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, are adopting MediaFlo. Samsung and LG are two phone makers whose equipment is compatible with the MediaFLO network. I think is interesting to mention that QualComm announced that is going to expand their services to 39 new markets in USA, the reason is the liberation of the spectrum that is generating the transition to digital TV. USA is the country which MediaFLO have more presence according the following article, one reason is because in Europe the standard choosen by the European Comission (EC) is DVB-H, so the MediaFLO standard has a uphill battle trying to provide mobile TV in Europe.
But does is mean that the EC’s decision will cut off MediaFlo from Europe? I do not hink so, as I read in an article on the online newspaper “moconews”, MediaFLO will apply a different strategy in Europe where MediaFLO USA in the U.S. purchased spectrum, aggregated content (programming), and built a mobile broadcast network., in Europe will only supply the technology to the operators.
Technically MediaFLO is better, because started later and was able to cope and improve some aspects that other technologies like DVB-H lack, has significant cost and frequency advantages. (Medford, 2008)
I decide to include the following video, that provides a interview to Omar Javaid, the Senior Director of Busines Development for Qualcomm MediaFLO Technologies, discusses the MediaFLO technology, the future of mobile TV and consumer experience in the U.S. market.
Yeun, C. Y. (2007). IEEE Xplore. Retrieved 5 19, 2009, from Mobile TV Technologies: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel5%2F4459487%2F4475588%2F04475607.pdf%3Farnumber%3D4475607&authDecision=-203
I read some papers that provide specific information about the technical characteristics of the DVB-H technology but I consider more appropriate to provide a general view of the technical aspects, although for those readers that want to know more about that approach I recommend them to read the following article (link1) or the chapter 7 of the book “Mobile TV: DVB-H, DMB, 3G Systems and Rich Media Applications” by Amitabh Kumar (2007). As I mentioned before
DVB-H is built upon the principles of the DVB-T standard, the DVB-H standard adds functional elements that are necessary to fulfill the requirements of the mobile handheld devices reception case. DVB-T and DVB-H use the same physical layer and what is interesting is that DVB-H can be backward compatible with DVB-T. DVB-H like DVB-T can carry the same MPEG-2 transport stream and use the same transmitter and OFDM modulators for its signal. Another positive fact is that DVB-H system is compatible with DVB-T networks, that allows to share the use of the DVB frequency bands without jamming the performance of the cellular bands. (DigiTag, 2008) DVB-H uses IP datacasting. So the system requires a process that involves packaging of digital data into IP packets and then delivering these packets in a reliable manner. The use of IP has the advantage that the data including content is compatible with Internet technology, in other words the content can be managed by the same protocols and devices that are used extensively on the Internet (Kumar, A., 2007). So the DVB-H payload are IP-datagrams.
DVB-H systems have been made the following enhancements that distinguish it from DVB-T:
- Time slicing: DVB-H uses time slicing to reduce the power consumption. Time slicing means that the data from a particular services is delivered to the handheld device in bursts at given intervals of time. When the receiver is not receiving the wanted burst (tv content), the tuner contained in the handheld devices remains “inactive” that contributes to use less power. Time-slicing contribures with a 95% reduction in power consumption compared to continuously operating DVB-T tuners. Because in DVB-T the cannels follow sequentially, so the receiver for each channel needs to be active all the time because the data is continuously arriving (DigiTag, 2008). In the case of DVB-H the IP encapsulator gives the full capacity of the multiplex for a limited time to only one channel, is necessary to mention that power is consumed continually by other parts of the receiver notably the video and audio decoders and the display. (Kumar, A., 2007). Time slicing also contributes enabling smooth and seamless frequency handover. (GERARD FARIA, 2006)
- OFDM: The use of multiple carriers, OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) systems excel at handling multi-path interference (EBU-EUR / DVB-H, 2004) In addition to the 2k and 8k modes available in DVB-T, a new 4k mode ortogongal frequency division multiplexing is adopterd giving increased flexibility for network design, is an option complementing the 8K and28K modes that also available. (GERARD FARIA, 2006). This 4K mode is also used for a trading off mobility and single-frequency network (SFN) cell size, allowing a single antenna reception in medium SFNs at high speeds. (EBU-EUR / DVB-H, 2004)
- MPE-FEC(Multi Protocol Encapsulation-Forward Error Correction): the reception in handheld devices have small antennas and have low gain and require reception from different location (mobile environment), so is necessary a strong transmission system able to cope with transmission errors, improve C/N performance and Doppler effects in mobile channels (Kumar, A., 2007) . So the MPE-FEC module offers in addition to the physical layer transmission a complementary forward error function that offers improved transmission robustness. The MPE-FEC processing is takes place on the link layer process the IP input streams before they are encapsulated by means of the MPE. MPE-FEC is not mandatory for DVB-H. (EBU-EUR / DVB-H, 2004)
The following diagram provides a general view of the DVB-H protocol stack:
Figure 1: DVB-H Protocol Stack (Kmar, 2007)
I have found interesting the following diagram that show the system architecture for collaboration between mobile and broadcast operators:
Figure 2 (DigiTag,2008)
With this entry I tried to explain the most important technic features of DVB-H standard by using the ETSI Digital Video Broadcasting standards, for more information consult the standard specification.
GERARD FARIA, J. A. (Genuary de 2006). DVB-H. Recuperado el 20 de 07 de 2009, de DVB-H: Digital Broadcast Services to Handheld Devices: http://www.dvb-h.org/PDF/01566629_DVB-H.pdf
Kumar, A. (2007). Mobile TV: DVB-H, DMB, 3G Systems and Rich Media Applications . Fucal Press Media Technoly Professional.
UE. (2008, 3 17). Mobile TV across Europe: Commission endorses addition of DVB-H to EU List of Official Standards. Retrieved 7 15, 2009, from http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/451
DVB-H technology is designed to use the digital terrestrial TV broadcast infrastructure to deliver multimedia services to mobiles. This technology is promoted by the EU as the mobile TV standard for Europe (UE, 2008). Nokia the most important mobile phones manufacturer have invested a big amount of resources on this techno, that is a fact that shows the importance of this technology. Nokia is integrating it in the latest released devices, for example the Nokia N96 and N77. For this reasons I will provide a detailed description of this technology in the next entrie.
The Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) Project is an industry consortium of over 270 companies (broadcasters, manufacturer, network operators, regulatory bodies and other) in over 35 countries commited to define and design technical standards for the global delivery of digital television and data services. (DVB, 2009)
The DVB Project started research investigation related to mobile reception of DVB-Terrestrial (DVB-T) signals in 1998, when commercial terrestrial digital TV was starting to be introduced in Europe. (Faria, Henriksson, Stare, & Talmola, 2006)
They realized that DVB-T services do not suit mobile devices special needs, because DVB-T standards have been defined for fixed receivers with large TV antennas and no limitations about the receiver battery power. (Kumar, A., 2007)
In the beginning of 2002 they started to work defining a system, they started by defining a set of commercial and technical requirements in order to design a system supporting handheld devices. The work led to a system called Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H), which was published by ETSI the Standard EN 302 304 in November 2004. . (Faria, Henriksson, Stare, & Talmola, 2006)
DVB-H is a modification of the DVB-T standard that is currently a widely used technology with over 50 countries already having terrestrial transmissions in digital mode, and in some countries DVB-T is replacing the analog terrestrial transmissions. (DVB, 2009)
The DVB-H standard is an ideal medium for mobile TV delivery to handheld devices, improves robustness in difficult reception environments of indoor and outdoor and lowers battery power consumption. (Kumar, A., 2007)
The DVB Project developed a second standard, Digital Video Broadcasting Satellite Services to Handhelds devices (DVB-SH), for the broadcast delivery of audio, video and data services (for more information link)
According to the lecture literature some standards are divided and composed of several standards, the DVB-H system is an example which consist in a group of several standard documents. The DVB-H system standard represents the main central document specification of the technology, defining the mandatory and the optional elements of the architecture and referencing all other required standards documents:
- DVB-T: defines the physical transmission layer. - DVB SI (Service Information): defines how to access the DVB-H services, defining how are they signaled. - DVB Data Broadcast standard: includes the new tool on the link layer. - The DVB Single Frequency Network Megaframe standard: defines the synchronization of terrestrial single frequency networks that use several transmitters.
According to the DVB Project official website DVB-H mobile TV services are on air in Italy, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland, Malaysia, Vietnam, Albania, the Philippines, Nigeria, Nambia and Kenia. In more than fifty countries DVB-H technical and commercial trials have taken place all over the world. Nowasays is taking place the analogue switch-off across Europre, the spectrum released in the UHF bands will contribute to the widespread deployment of DVB-H networks.
References:
DVB. (2009). What is the DVB Project? Retrieved 7 2009, 15, from http://www.dvb.org/
Kumar, A. (2007). Mobile TV: DVB-H, DMB, 3G Systems and Rich Media Applications . Fucal Press Media Technoly Professional.
UE. (2008, 3 17). Mobile TV across Europe: Commission endorses addition of DVB-H to EU List of Official Standards. Retrieved 7 15, 2009, from http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/451
DAB (digital audio broadcasting) is a method for the digital transmission of digital radio signals for mobile reception through direct broadcasts from the satellite or terrestrial transmitters to DAB receivers, was developed by EUREKA project 147. Was initially designed for the transimssion of audio, but currently supports also multimedia broadcasting, video, text, image, and other application. (TNO-ICT, 2007)
There are many DAB variants, each with specific transport protocols for the specific services. In our context of Mobile TV the important standard is T-DMB and DAB-IP. This standards are recongnized by ETSI, IEC and CENELEC. (WorldDMB, 2009)
The Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) is a video and multimedia technology based on DAB. It offers a wide range of services, such as mobile TV (T-DMB), traffic and safety information (security), interactive programs, data information and many other applications. DMB is one of the world's most successful mobile TV standard, with over 8 million devices sold. Countries in Europe and Asia have implemented commercial services. (WorldDMB, 2009)
According to corporative information, on 1st December 2005 Korea became the first country to ever launch a consumer facing Mobile TV service. This was done using DMB.
The following video is interesting because shows how DMB works, the functionalities and applications and the benefits:
It says that in Europe, Germany starts using DMB mobile TV services coinciding with the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The technology has since proven popular on a worldwide scale: 14 European countries and 9 further countries have carried out test or trials. These include: Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Italy, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. More information of the geographic distribution can bee seen in this link. (WorldDMB, 2009)
DAB-IP is another extension of the DAB technology to provide TV broadcasting over DAB. The following is the definition of DAB-IP provided on WorldDMB official web site: “DAB-IP is an alternative possibility for digital multimedia and video broadcasting. It was used in the UK on a trial basis over a period of about 18 months which finished end of 2007. Unlike DMB, this variant is not fully standardised by ETSI, but makes use of a hook that was designed exactly for that purpose - DAB IP Tunnelling. Based on this transport system for IP datagrams via DAB, the provider BT Movio applied protocols and source coding algorithms designed by Microsoft. It should be noted that in the meantime all of these specifications (ASF and VC-1) are in public domain apart from one - WMA.”
In this second part of the blog I will focus on the discussion of Mobile TV broadcast standards in Europe, trying to cover the following issues: technologies, markets, and regulatory action. The reason I decide to focus on the broadcast issue is because broadcast remains the foreseeable future the most efficient way for the large-scale provision of TV service, and is still an “open” issue.
The broadcast technologies that have allowed us to watch TV in our homes, have been modified and adapted to allow mobile handsets to receive the same programs. Broadcast standards are poised to enable mobile TV for the mass market, in the same way to what high definition (digital TV) is doing for the home TV market.
Standards / Technologies
In this first part of the second part of the blog I will discuss about the broadcast technologies. Mobile TV broadcast concerns the simultaneous broadcast (delivery) of multimedia content to a big number of consumer with handset devices. So it is necessary a bearer technology to allow the TV services. This bearer technology relates to the physical and transport layer aspects, including de/modularion and transmission, content formats (audio and video), security and service description. The bearer technology is responsible for the quality of service that the consumer experiences. The following diagram shows the different layers: (TNO-ICT, 2007)
The broadcasts involve multiple technologies for mobile TV, such as digital video broadcasting for handhelds (DVB-H), digital multimedia broadcasting for TV (DMB-T), DVB-T, and analog TV, in simultaneous transmissions.
According to several news I have read on Internet (News1, News2) the European Commission (EC) is attempting to settle on a single standard for mobile TV broadcast across the European Union (EU), and it looks like DVB-H may come out on top. But the industry represented by the European Mobile Broadcasting Council (EMBC), argues that EC position is favoring a technology standard over others.
According to the study “Mobile TV” (TNO-ICT, 2007), requested by the “Policy Department Economic and Scientific Policy” of the UE, the four technologies that currently dominate the Mobile TV landscape are Digital Audio Broadcasting-Internet Protocol (DAB-IP), Forward Link Only (FLO), Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) and Digital Video Broadcast- Handheld (DVB-H). All four technologies are fully capable of supporting mobile TV.
In the next 4 entries I will discuss each of this 4 technologies that are currently dominating the market (in the UE).
