BROADCASTING TO HANDHELDS

DVB-H — the emerging standard for mobile data communication

Michael Kornfeld and Ulrich Reimers

Institute for Communications Technology, Technische Universität Braunschweig

DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) is the new digital broadcast standard
for the transmission of broadcast content to handheld terminal devices, developed
by the international DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) Project and recently published
by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute).
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. This article presents
an overview of the emerging DVB-H technology and an analysis of the performance
characteristics of the DVB-H transmission system.

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 coun-
tries, 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.
Meanwhile the benefits of a powerful terrestrial broadcast system like DVB-T have attracted the
interest of the mobile communication industry. In particular, the ability to reach mobile terminals via
a wireless point-to-multipoint link, in connection with wide geographical coverage and high transmis-
sion capacity that DVB-T can offer, are features which have sparked the interest of this industry.
The international DVB Project has responded to the industry interest by specifying a new transmis-
sion standard: DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Transmission System for Handheld Terminals).
DVB-H is the latest development within the set of DVB transmission standards. Work on the tech-
nical specification started in autumn 2002 and was finalised in February 2004; the DVB-H standard
was finally published by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) as a European
Norm in November 2004 [1].
The DVB-H technology is a spin-off of the DVB-T standard. It is to a large extent compatible with
DVB-T but takes into account the specific properties of typical terminals which are expected to be
small, lightweight, portable and – very importantly – battery-powered. DVB-H can offer a down-
stream channel at a high data-rate which will be an enhancement to the mobile telecommunications
network, accessible by most of the typical terminals. Therefore, DVB-H creates a bridge between
the classical broadcast systems and the world of cellular radio networks. The broadband, high-

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 BROADCASTING TO HANDHELDS
capacity downstream channel provided by DVB-H will feature a total data-rate of several Mbit/s and
may be used for audio and video streaming applications, file downloads and for many other kinds of
services. The system thereby introduces new ways of distributing services to handheld terminals,
offering greatly-extended possibilities for content providers and network operators.

System requirements
The commercial requirements of the system were determined by the DVB Project in 2002:

 DVB-H shall offer broadcast services for portable and mobile usage, including audio and video
streaming with acceptable quality. The data-rates feasible in practice have to be sufficient for
this purpose. For the DVB-H system, a useful data-rate of up to 10 Mbit/s per channel is envis-
aged. Transmission channels will mostly be allocated in the regular UHF broadcasting band.
VHF Band III may be used alternatively. Non-broadcast frequencies should be useable also.

 The typical user environment of a DVB-H handheld terminal is very much comparable to the
mobile radio environment. Therefore DVB-H needs to have the potential for similar geographic
coverage. The term handheld terminal includes multimedia mobile phones with colour
displays as well as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and pocket PC types of equipment. All
these kinds of devices have a number of features in common: small dimensions, light weight,
and battery operation. These properties are a precondition for mobile usage but also imply
several severe restrictions on the transmission system. The terminal devices lack an external
power supply in most cases and have to be operated with a limited power budget. Low power
consumption is necessary to obtain reasonable usage and standby cycles.

 Mobility is an additional requirement, meaning that access to services shall be possible not only
at almost all indoor and outdoor locations but also while moving in a vehicle at high speed.
Also, the handover between adjacent DVB-H radio cells shall happen imperceptibly when
moving over larger distances. However, fast varying channels are very error-prone. The situa-
tion is worsened by the fact that antennas built into handheld devices have limited dimensions
and cannot be pointed at the transmitter if the terminal is in motion. A multi-antenna diversity
approach is mostly impossible because of space limitations. Moreover, interference can result
from GSM mobile radio signals transmitted and received within the same device. As a result,
accessing a downstream of several Mbit/s with handheld terminals is a very demanding task.

 Finally, the new system needs to be similar to the existing DVB-T system for digital terrestrial
television. The DVB-H and the DVB-T network structures shall be as compatible to each other
as possible in order to enable the re-use of the same transmission equipment.

System overview
DVB-H, as a transmission standard, specifies the physical layer as well as the elements of the
lowest protocol layers. It uses a power-saving algorithm based on the time-multiplexed transmission
of different services. The technique, called time slicing, results in a large battery power-saving
effect. Additionally, time slicing allows soft handover if the receiver moves from network cell to
network cell with only one receiver unit. For reliable transmission in poor signal reception condi-
tions, an enhanced error-protection scheme on the link layer is introduced. This scheme is called
MPE-FEC (Multi-Protocol Encapsulation – Forward Error Correction). MPE-FEC employs powerful
channel coding on top of the channel coding included in the DVB-T specification and offers a degree
of time interleaving. Furthermore, the DVB-H standard features an additional network mode, the
4K mode, offering additional flexibility in designing single-frequency networks (SFNs) which still are
well suited for mobile reception, and also provides an enhanced signalling channel for improving
access to the various services.

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The physical layer

The physical radio transmission is performed by means of the DVB-T standard employing OFDM
multi-carrier modulation [2]. There is only one obligatory new feature on the physical layer which
makes the DVB-H signal distinguishable from a DVB-T signal – namely an extended parameter
signalling for the DVB-H elementary streams in the multiplex. Several further optional new elements
exist which will be described in the paragraph Physical layer extensions. The signalling is realised in
a way which is downwards compatible with the DVB-T system. Furthermore, the DVB-H data
stream is fully compatible with DVB transport streams carrying “classical” DVB-T offerings. These
properties guarantee that the DVB-H data stream can be broadcast (i) via DVB-T transmitter
networks totally dedicated to DVB-H services as well as (ii) via DVB-T networks carrying these clas-
sical services in addition to DVB-H services. For this reason, essential technologies specific to
DVB-H – such as time slicing and the enhanced forward error correction – are deliberately put onto
the protocol layer above the DVB Transport Stream.

Time slicing
A special problem for DVB-H terminals is the limited battery capacity. In a way, being compatible
with DVB-T would place a burden on the DVB-H terminal because demodulating and decoding a
broadband, high data-rate stream like the DVB-T stream involves a certain power dissipation in the
tuner and the demodulator part. An investigation at the beginning of the development of DVB-H
showed that the total power consumption of a DVB-T front end was more than 1 Watt at the time of
the examination and was expected not to decrease below 600 mW until 2006; meanwhile a some-
what lower value seems possible but the envisaged target of 100 mW as a maximum threshold for
the entire front end incorporated in a DVB-H terminal is still unobtainable for a DVB-T receiver.
A considerable drawback for battery-operated terminals is the fact that with DVB-T, the whole data
stream has to be decoded before any one of the services (TV programmes) of the multiplex can be
accessed. The power saving made possible by DVB-H is derived from the fact that essentially only
those parts of the stream which carry the data of the service currently selected have to be proc-
essed. However, the data stream needs to be reorganized in a suitable way for that purpose. With
DVB-H, service multiplexing is performed in a pure time-division multiplex. The data of one partic-
ular service are therefore not transmitted continuously but in compact periodical bursts with interrup-
tions in between. Multiplexing of several services leads again to a continuous, uninterrupted
transmitted stream of constant data-rate.
This kind of signal can be received time-selectively: the terminal synchronizes to the bursts of the
wanted service but switches to a power-save mode during the intermediate time when other serv-

Abbreviations
AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise MUX Multiplex / multiplexer
BER Bit-Error Rate OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex
COST European Cooperation in the field Of Scientific PDA Personal Digital Assistant
and Technical research QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
DVB Digital Video Broadcasting QEF Quasi-Error-Free
DVB-H DVB - Handheld RS Reed-Solomon (code)
DVB-T DVB - Terrestrial SFN Single-Frequency Network
ETSI European Telecommunication Standards SI Service Information
Institute S/I Signal-to-Interferene ratio
FEC Forward Error Correction S/N Signal-to-Noise ratio
FFT Fast Fourier Transform TPS Transmission-Parameter Signalling
GSM Global System for Mobile communications TU Typical Urban channel profile
IP Internet Protocol UHF Ultra High Frequency
MPE Multi-Protocol Encapsulation VHF Very High Frequency

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 BROADCASTING TO HANDHELDS
ices are being transmitted. The
power-save time between DVB-H service 1 DVB-H service 8 burst size 2 Mbit
bursts, relative to the on-time
required for the reception of an
individual service, is a direct 3.2
Mbit/s
measure of the power saving
provided by DVB-H. This tech-
nique is called time slicing. TV program 3
Bursts entering the receiver
have to be buffered and read
out of the buffer at the service 3.3
TV program 2 Mbit/s
data-rate. The amount of data Data rate in
contained in one burst needs to the DVB-T/H
channel
be sufficient for bridging the
power-save period of the front TV program 1
end. The position of the bursts time

is signalled in terms of the rela-

tive time difference between 1 second

two consecutive bursts of the

same service. Practically, the Figure 1
duration of one burst is in the The time slicing principle: example of a service multiplex in a com-
mon DVB-T/H channel, including time-sliced DVB-H services
range of several hundred milli-
seconds whereas the power-
save time may amount to several seconds. A lead time for powering up the front end, for resynchro-
nization etc. has to be taken into account; this time period is assumed to be less than 250 ms.
Depending on the ratio of on-time / power-save time, the resulting power saving may be more than
90 %.
As an example, Fig. 1 shows a cut-out of a data stream containing time-sliced services. One quarter
of the assumed total capacity of the DVB-T channel of 13.27 Mbit/s is assigned to DVB-H services
whereas the remaining capacity is shared between ordinary DVB-T services. This example shows
that it is feasible to transmit both DVB-T and DVB-H within the same network.
Time slicing requires a sufficiently high number of multiplexed services and a certain minimum burst
data-rate to guarantee effective power saving. Basically, the power consumption of the front end
correlates with the service data-rate of the service currently selected.
Time slicing offers another benefit for the terminal architecture. The rather long power-save periods
may be used to search for channels in neighbouring radio cells offering the selected service. This
way a channel handover can be performed at the border between two cells which remains impercep-
tible for the user. Both the monitoring of the services in adjacent cells and the reception of the
selected service data can be realized with the same front end [3].

IP interfacing and enhanced forward error correction

In contrast to other DVB transmission systems which are based on the DVB Transport Stream [4]
adopted from the MPEG-2 standard, the DVB-H system is based on IP (Internet Protocol). In
consequence, the DVB-H base-band interface is an IP interface. This interface allows the DVB-H
system to be combined with other IP-based networks. This combination is one feature of the
IP Datacast system which is expected to be made available by DVB in the summer of 2005 [3].
Nevertheless, the MPEG-2 transport stream is still used by the base layer. The IP data are
embedded into the transport stream by means of the Multi-Protocol Encapsulation (MPE), an adap-
tation protocol defined in the DVB Data Broadcast Specification [5].
On the level of the MPE, an additional stage of forward error correction (FEC) is added. This tech-
nique, called MPE-FEC, is the second main innovation of DVB-H besides the time slicing. MPE-

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 BROADCASTING TO HANDHELDS
FEC complements the physical
layer FEC of the underlying DVB RF signal
DVB-T standard. It is intended MPEG2
Transport
to reduce the S/N require- Stream
ments for reception by a hand- DVB-H codec MUX DVB-T coder
IP and modulator
held device. Intensive testing
MPE- Time
of DVB-H, which was carried FEC
MPE
Slicing
out by DVB member companies
in the autumn of 2004, showed
that the use of MPE-FEC
Figure 2
results in a gain of some 7 dB
Schematic of DVB-H codec and transmitter
over DVB-T.

The MPE-FEC processing is located on the link layer at the level of the IP input streams before they
are encapsulated by means of the MPE. The MPE-FEC, the MPE, and the time slicing technique
were defined jointly and directly aligned with each other. All three elements together form the DVB-
H codec which contains the essential DVB-H functionality (Fig. 2). The IP input streams provided by
different sources as individual elementary streams are multiplexed according to the time slicing
method. The MPE-FEC error protection is calculated separately for each individual elementary
stream. Afterwards encapsulation of IP packets and embedding into the transport stream follow. All
relevant data processing is carried out before the transport stream interface in order to guarantee
compatibility to a DVB-T transmission network.

Looking at the details of the

Application Data Table RS Data Table processing, one can see that
the new MPE-FEC scheme
RS(255,191) Code IP Data Parity Bytes
191 columns
consists of a Reed-Solomon
64 columns
(RS) Code in conjunction with a
I g
block interleaver. The MPE-
1024 rows (max.)

P r FEC encoder creates a specific

RS Codewords
. D a .
.
frame structure, the FEC frame,
.
.
a m .
.
incorporating the incoming data
t of the DVB-H codec (Fig. 3).
a- The FEC frame consists of a
maximum of 1024 rows and a
constant number of 255
Multi Protocol Encapsulation IP sections FEC sections
columns; every frame cell
corresponds to one byte, the
Figure 3 maximum frame size is approx.
MPE-FEC frame structure
2 Mbit.

The frame is separated into two parts, the application data table on the left (191 columns) and the
RS data table on the right (64 columns). The application data table is filled with the IP packets of
the service to be protected. After applying the RS(255,191) code to the application data row-by-
row, the RS data table contains the parity bytes of the RS code. After the coding, the IP packets are
read out of the application data table and are encapsulated in IP sections in a way which is well
known from the MPE method. These application data are followed by the parity data which are read
out of the RS data table column-by-column and are encapsulated in separate FEC sections. The
FEC frame structure also contains a “virtual” block interleaving effect in addition to the coding.
Writing to and reading from the FEC frame is performed in column direction whereas coding is
applied in row direction.

The MPE-FEC is directly related to the time slicing. Both techniques are applied on the elementary
stream level, and one time-slicing burst includes the content of exactly one FEC frame. This
enables the re-use of memory in the receiver chips. Separating the IP data and parity data of each
burst makes the use of MPE-FEC decoding in the receiver optional, since the application data can
be utilised while ignoring the parity information.

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Physical layer extensions

The signalling of parameters of the DVB-H elementary streams in the multiplex uses an extension of
the Transmission Parameter Signalling (TPS) channel known from the DVB-T standard. TPS
creates a reserved information channel which provides tuning parameters to the receiver. The new
elements of the TPS channel provide the information that time-sliced DVB-H elementary streams
are available in the multiplex and indicate whether MPE-FEC protection is used in at least one of the
elementary streams. The additional physical transmission modes being described in this paragraph
are also signalled in the TPS channel. Finally, broadcasting of the cell identifier known as an
optional element of DVB-T is made mandatory for DVB-H. The availability of this identifier simplifies
the discovery of neighbouring network cells in which the selected same service is available.

Table 1
Parameters of the various possible DVB-H OFDM transmission modes

Mode
OFDM parameter 2K 4K 8K
Overall carriers (= FFT size) 2048 4096 8192
Modulated carriers 1705 3409 6817
Useful carriers 1512 3024 6048
OFDM symbol duration (µs) 224 448 896
Guard interval duration (µs) 7,14,28,56 14,28,56,112 28,56,112,224
Carrier spacing (kHz) 4.464 2.232 1.116
Maximum distance of transmitters (km) 17 33 67

DVB-H can be transmitted using an OFDM transmission mode which is not part of the DVB-T speci-
fication. DVB-T already provides a 2K and an 8K mode for the optimum support of different network
topologies. DVB-H allows a 4K mode to be used in addition which is created via a 4096-point
Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) in the OFDM modulator. Table 1 shows some relevant
parameters of the three different OFDM transmission modes. The 4K mode represents a compro-
mise solution between the two other modes. It allows for a doubling of the transmitter distance in
SFNs compared to the 2K mode and, when compared to the 8K mode, is less susceptible to the
inverse effect of Doppler shifts in the case of mobile reception. The 4K mode will offer a new degree
of network planning flexibility. Since DVB-T does not include this mode, it may only be used in dedi-
cated DVB-H networks.

In connection with the three

network modes, various symbol
interleaving mode schemes are
defined (see Fig. 4). A DVB-H
terminal which is compliant with
the specification supports the
8K mode and therefore incorpo-
rates an 8K symbol inter-
leaver. It therefore is quite
natural that one may wish to
make use of the relatively big
memory of the 8K symbol inter-
leaver in all three network
Figure 4 modes. The symbol interleaver
In-depth symbol interleaving of OFDM symbols in the terminal is able to

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 BROADCASTING TO HANDHELDS
process the data transmitted in one complete 8K OFDM symbol or alternatively the data transmitted
in two 4K OFDM symbols or in four 2K OFDM symbols. The new scheme makes use of the avail-
able memory and results in an increased interleaving depth for the 2K and 4K modes and in
improved performance. If the full amount of the available memory is used, the resulting method is
called in-depth interleaving whereas the use of the symbol interleavers specific for the individual
modes is called native interleaving.
DVB-H was specified not only for the channel bandwidths used in TV broadcasting but in addition for
a channel bandwidth of 5 MHz. The DVB-T standard describes solutions for the three different VHF/
UHF bandwidths used worldwide (6 MHz, 7 MHz, 8 MHz) which are therefore also supported in
DVB-H. The 5 MHz bandwidth solution enables using this transmission standard outside of classical
broadcast bands as well.

Standardization of DVB-H
The DVB-H system is not spec-
ified in one single document.
DVB-H
Instead, it is defined by a family TS 101 191 EN 302 304 Implementation
of several specifications (Fig. 5) SFN Megaframe DVB-H System Guidelines
ETR XXX XXX
due to the prior existence of Specification
normative
various DVB specifications
which needed modifications: EN 301 192
Data Broadcasting EN 300 468
 The DVB-H system specifi- - Time Slicing DVB SI
cation represents the - MPE-FEC

central document, refer- New documents

encing all other necessary for DVB-H
Annex F, G
EN 300 744
standards. It has been Modified
existing DVB-T
- TPS bits
- 4K mode
published as the new standards - Interleavers
- 5 MHz
European norm EN 302 Arrows indicate
the reference direction
304 [1].
Figure 5
 The physical layer specifi- The DVB-H standards family
cation has been incorpo-
rated in the DVB-T
standard [2]. It has been published as a new version of this standard which contains the DVB-H
physical layer enhancements in an annex.
 Time slicing and MPE-FEC have been described in a new chapter of the DVB Data Broadcast
specification. This document also defines the Multi-Protocol Encapsulation [5].
 DVB-H-specific signalling has been integrated into the DVB Service Information (SI) specifica-
tion [6].
 Some modifications also affect the DVB SFN Megaframe specification which describes the
synchronization of terrestrial single frequency networks [7].
The system specification determines mandatory and optional elements. Time slicing is mandatory
for all DVB-H services and therefore has become a characteristic feature of them. The system spec-
ification is complemented by DVB-H Implementation Guidelines which contain hints for the use and
practical implementation of the standard. These guidelines were released by the DVB Project in the
autumn of 2004 and are expected to become a Technical Report (TR) published by ETSI.

Implementation of the system and performance analysis

In order to validate the DVB-H standard, it has been completely implemented in software at the Insti-
tute for Communications Technology in parallel with the process of developing the system. The soft-

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M. Kornfeld and U. Reimers
 BROADCASTING TO HANDHELDS
ware implementation allows
comprehensive system simula-
tions to be made using all kinds
of possible transmission chan-
nels affected by all kinds of
impairments. The existing sim-
ulation chain is able to accept
arbitrary standard-conformant
DVB-H transport streams, to
simulate the physical layer and
the radio channel transmission,
and to perform the whole
processing necessary for de-
coding the data in the receiver
terminal.
The simulation results reported
here as an example of the anal-
ysis done, relate to the perform- Figure 6
ance of the 4K network mode Comparison of the OFDM modes and interleaving schemes as a
and to the effect of the use of function of the level of impulse interference
“in-depth” symbol interleaving.
The simulation results reported
describe the impact of signal
interference by an impulse
noise source (in practice a radi-
ating electrical device or the
ignition system of a car) and the
effects of mobile reception in a
multipath environment, respec-
tively. The parameters used for
the simulation were as follows:
 16-QAM modulation;
 DVB-T convolutional code
rate 2/3;
 guard interval length ¼.

These are the parameters

which are used for DVB-T in
Germany. All three network Figure 7
modes (2K, 4K and 8K) were Comparison of the OFDM modes and interleaving schemes at a
compared with each other. In constant impulse interference level as a function of SNR
addition, the effect of the
optional “in-depth” interleaver – which is defined only for the 2K and the 4K cases – was examined.
The bit error rate (BER) is shown as a function of the impairments in the various channels examined.

In the case of impulse interference, the transmitted signal was overlaid with periodical series of
disturbing impulses following a defined pattern and having a fixed level. The definition of the
impulse pattern and their parameters followed recommendations by the Digital Television Group
(DTG) in the United Kingdom which are widely accepted in the DVB-T community [8]. At first, the
instantaneous signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of the pulses was varied with no other noise or signal
distortion present (Fig. 6). Secondly, Fig. 7 shows the performance comparison at a constant
impulse noise level 5 dB above the signal level (SIR = –5 dB) as a function of the signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) when the noise present in addition to the impulses is AWGN. The results in Fig. 6 and
Fig. 7 show that the “in-depth” interleaving scheme causes a real benefit in comparison to the
“native” interleaving in both the 2K and 4K modes, but that the 8K mode outperforms 2K and 4K.

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 BROADCASTING TO HANDHELDS
In the case of mobile reception,
a COST 207 radio channel
model with 6-tap “typical urban”
(TU6) profile and classical
Doppler spectrum was used.
The Doppler frequency in the
received signal was varied
which directly corresponds to
the speed of motion of the
receiver. Single antenna recep-
tion was simulated. No an-
tenna diversity technique was
employed and no optimized
receiver signal processing algo-
rithms were used in order to
clearly see the impact of the
choice of the various DVB-H
modes.
Figure 8
Comparison of the OFDM modes and interleaving schemes in the The results in Fig. 8 confirm
case of mobile reception as a function of Doppler frequency that the Doppler tolerance of
(COST 207 channel, TU6 profile)
the 4K mode lies right between
those of the 2K and 8K modes.
The quantitative figures increase by a factor of two from one mode to the next which is completely in
line with the relation between the parameters of the three modes. The “in-depth” interleaving
scheme improves reception significantly only in the 2K case.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Reimers studied Electrical Engineering at Technische Univer-

sität Braunschweig and received the Dr.-Ing. degree in 1982 at the Institute for Com-
munications Technology of this university.

After activities in the industry from 1982 until 1989 he became Technical Director of
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). Since 1993, he has been a Professor at Tech-
nische Universität Braunschweig and Managing Director of the Institute for Commu-
nications Technology.

In his capacity as Chairman of the Technical Module of the DVB Project, Prof. Reim-
ers is deeply involved in the development of digital television worldwide. His merits in this function have
been honoured many times both internationally and nationally. His most recent awards were the IEEE Con-
sumer Electronics Engineering Excellence Award 2002 which was presented to him by the Institute of Elec-
trical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Richard Theile Medal of the German society of motion
pictures and television engineers (FKTG).

Prof. Reimers is the author of more than 100 publications and a book on DVB, which has already been
released in German and English in several editions.

Michael Kornfeld studied Electrical Engineering and received the Dipl.-Ing. degree
from Technische Universität Braunschweig in 2001. He joined the Institute for Com-
munications Technology of Technische Universität Braunschweig in May 2001 and is
currently working in the Department of Electronic Media. His present activities are in
the field of digital modulation and channel coding techniques for terrestrial broadcast
systems.

Mr Kornfeld is a member of the DVB Ad-Hoc Group which defined the technical spec-
ification for the DVB-H system, and a member of the technical board of the "DVB-T in
Northern Germany" project which is dealing with the launch of DTT in Germany.

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 BROADCASTING TO HANDHELDS

Outlook
After having successfully concluded the work on the specification work, and in fact the standardiza-
tion, the DVB Project has started the verification of the features of DVB-H. Trial networks are in
operation in the cities of Helsinki, Berlin, Pittsburgh/USA, Barcelona, and Metz. First joint laboratory
tests have been conducted in Berlin in October 2004 in order to prove functionality and interopera-
bility of equipment and to gain knowledge about the practical performance. DVB-H field trials are
planned immediately after the evaluation of the test data. Results can be expected to become avail-
able in January 2005. A European validation project will continue the work on the system evaluation
and will broaden these activities starting at the beginning of 2005. As a result of these activities
significant new know-how is expected to become available which will serve as an input to a new
version of the Implementation Guidelines. Subsequently, the launch of commercial services is
planned in several European countries as early as 2006. According to market prospects of relevant
terminal and chip manufacturers, sales figures of DVB-H devices in the year 2008 are predicted to
be in the order of 10s to 100s of millions.

Acknowledgement
The authors wish to acknowledge the co-operative efforts of many individuals who jointly created DVB-
H and who are involved in its evaluation. The chairman of the ad-hoc group DVB-H of the DVB Tech-
nical Module (TM) Dr Jukka Henriksson (Nokia) should be explicitly mentioned. Thanks to everybody.

References
[1] EN 302304 v1.1.1: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Transmission System for Handheld
Terminals (DVB-H)
ETSI , November 2004.
[2] EN 300744 v1.5.1: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Framing structure, channel coding
and modulation for digital terrestrial television
ETSI , November 2004.
[3] G. May: The IP Datacast System – Overview and Mobility Aspects
IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics 2004, Proc. pp. 509 - 514, Sept. 2004.
[4] U. Reimers (Ed.): Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) – The International Standard for
Digital Television, 2nd ed.
Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 2004. ISBN 3-540-43545-X.
[5] EN 301192 v1.4.1: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); DVB Specification for Data Broad-
casting
ETSI , November 2004.
[6] EN 300468 v1.6.1: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Specification for Service Informa-
tion (SI) in DVB Systems
ETSI, November 2004.
[7] TS 101191 v1.4.1: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); DVB mega-frame for Single
Frequency Network (SFN) synchronization
ETSI, June 2004.
[8] DTG RF sub-group document no. 67: UHF Transmission and Reception
Digital Television Group, 2003.

EBU TECHNICAL REVIEW – January 2005 10 / 10

M. Kornfeld and U. Reimers