DVB-H: Indroduction

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/

Faria, G., Henriksson, J., Stare, E., & Talmola, P. (2006). IEEE Xplore. Retrieved 06 2009, 13, from DVB-H: Digital Broadcast Services to Handheld Devices: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel5%2F5%2F33232%2F01566629.pdf%3Farnumber%3D1566629&authDecision=-203

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