DVB-T Technology

The DVB-T standard EN 300 744 describes a baseline transmission system for digital terrestrial television broadcasting. It specifies the channel coding/modulation system intended for digital multiprogram LDTV/SDTV/EDTV/HDTV terrestrial services in 8 MHz, 7 MHz, and 6 MHz channels.

The standard includes:

  • A general description of the baseline system for digital terrestrial TV.
  • The global performance requirements and features of the baseline system in order to meet the service quality targets.
  • The specification of the digitally modulated signal in order to allow compatibility between pieces of equipment developed by different manufacturers.

The signal processing on the modulator end is described in detail, while the processing on the receiver end is left open to different implementation solutions. However, certain aspects of reception are referred to.

To address handheld terminals (DVB-H), additional information is provided in annexes:

  • An additional 4K mode offering supplementary options for network planning (annex F).
  • An optional in-depth inner interleaver for mitigating the effects of high-level man-made noise affecting the reception of DVB-H services (annex F).
  • An extension of the transmission parameter signaling (TPS) information for signaling DVB-H services (annex F).
  • The transmission parameters for operating the transmission system in 5 MHz channel bandwidth, even outside the traditional broadcasting bands (annex G).

A new standard for digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DVB-T2) was in October 2007 under development. Its aim was to provide a baseline system for the broadcasting of HDTV terrestrial services. The ongoing discussions are focused on time-frequency slicing of an extended multiplex over several RF channels, on new time interleaving and FEC schemes, higher order constellations, and new solutions for channel equalization.

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