terrestrial media delivery – beyond dvb-t2 · the audience will migrate to cable, satellite...

Platzhalter für Bild, Bild auf Titelfolie hinter das Logo einsetzen

Terrestrial Media Delivery – Beyond DVB-T2

Ulrich Reimers, Madrid, 12 March 2013

12 March 2013 | U. Reimers | Terrestrial Media Delivery – Beyond DVB-T2 | 2/20

What I want to talk about

1.  DVB-T and DVB-T2 – in Germany 2.  A country without classical terrestrial TV? 3.  Can cellular networks do the job? 4.  A Tower Overlay over LTE-A 5.  What shall we do with the UHF spectrum? 6.  Conclusion


In Germany, classical terrestrial TV still uses DVB-T

DVB-T: between 3,0 % (SL) and 25,6 % (HB) Source: Digitalisierungsbericht 2012

Mio. HH In %: IPTV DVB-T Satellite Cable Federal State


Our field trial with DVB-T2 in North Germany concluded that there are three scenarios how DVB-T2 could be introduced §  Szenario 1: Concentrate on portable and mobile reception.

The net data rate is sufficient for 7 to 8 SDTV programs per channel

§  Szenario 2: Deliver SDTV+ to stationary, portable and mobile receivers The net data rate is sufficient for 7 to 8 SDTV+ programs per channel. Alternatively, a mixture of HDTV and SDTV+ is possible

§  Szenario 3: Concentrate on stationary HDTV receivers The net data rate is sufficient for 3 to 4 HDTV programs per channel

§  In scenarios 1 and 2, the cost per program could be halved in comparison to DVB-T today

§  But: DVB-T2 would require new receivers


Coming soon §  We donated a translation of the key sections of the final report of the field trial to DigiTAG

for distribution to its members

§  The report presents the results of field tests of even the most „esoteric“ features of DVB-T2 such as: §  Multiple Physical Layer Pipes (MPLP) §  Rotated Constellations §  Time interleavers of different lengths §  Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) §  Portable reception §  In-car reception


In January 2013, RTL anounced that they will stop broadcasting DVB-T. RTL is the most important commercial broadcaster §  Other commercial broadcasters will decide by the end of March and may follow RTL

§  The DVB-T audience even in the metropolitan areas will only receive public broadcast programs ( ? RTL will stop on 31 July 2013 in Munich, on 31 Dec. 2014 in other regions)

§  The audience will migrate to cable, satellite and/or IPTV

§  The number of DVB-T customers will probably decrease sharply §  DVB-T2 in Germany? Forget it

§  Eventually, even the public broadcasters will have to ask themselves: „Is DVB-T still economically viable?“


In January 2013, RTL anounced that they will stop broadcasting DVB-T. RTL is the most important commercial broadcaster §  Germany will become very popular (?) in the world of broadcasting. Is the German

development going to initiate a domino effect? §  For portable and mobile reception (e.g. in cars) classical Live TV will no longer exist

§  The UHF spectrum can be allocated to other uses – in the medium term. International frequency co-ordination will be even more fun than in the past

§  The broadcast network operators will be faced with signficant challenges

§  Radio broadcast alone will have to pay for all the broadcast infrastructure such as towers and sites


In January 2013, RTL anounced that they will stop broadcasting DVB-T. RTL is the most important commercial broadcaster §  The various regulators (media and telecom) will have to think about creating qualitative and

quantitative obligations for the new users of the UHF spectrum

§  What about a „must carry of Live TV“ on cellular networks?

§  But before we start talking about obligations: Will there be an interest in the future to watch Live TV on Tablet PCs and other portable devices outside your own appartment? Remember: DVB-T will no longer be there

§  By the way: In 2012, 4.4 mio. Tablet PCs were sold in Germany – and for 2013, the industry expects more than 5 mio.


What I want to talk about

1.  DVB-T and DVB-T2 – in Germany 2.  A country without classical terrestrial TV? 3.  Can cellular networks do the job? 4.  A Tower Overlay over LTE-A 5.  What shall we do with the the UHF spectrum? 6.  Conclusion


If LiveTV on Tablet PCs and other portable devices is required, then: §  One or more of the following network technologies will have to do the job: §  WiFi – for all of us, this is an extremely important delivery network technology based on a

fixed Internet connection. §  WiFi experiences congestion in many built-up areas §  Unfortunately, regulators and operators of infrastructure networks seem to ignore the

technology §  Our system Dynamic Broadcast generates dynamically available WiFi spectrum §  With TV White Spaces more spectrum can be generated – but if there is no more TV?

§  UMTS / Long Term Evolution (LTE) in unicast mode §  LTE with eMBMS (evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) §  A „Tower Overlay“ over LTE


evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) §  evolved MBMS is not yet in operation, but it was demonstrated several times – for instance

at the Mobile World Congress 2013. Verizon seems to introduce it in the US §  A lot is being published about eMBMS – for instance by Ericsson. Practical experience is

missing. We hope to be testing it in Germany soon

§  With eMBMS up to 60% of the ressources of a carrier can be allocated to a broadcast mode. The remaining 40% are used for unicasting

§  eMBMS requires the network to operate at a robust and rather inefficient mode since all user terminals will have to be reached – even those at the cell edge

§  eMBMS is specific to the cellular network of each operator. In Germany, this may lead to four parallel eMBMS services delivering identical Live TV?


LTE in unicast mode – why not go for such a solution? §  LTE is being rolled out as we speak. It is a wonderful system

§  The number of LTE users is still quite limited and there is not a lot of experience with its performance in „heavy traffic“

§  LTE flat rates are unknown in Germany. Volume tariffs with monthly limitations between 10 GByte (@ € 43,95) and 30 GByte (@ € 69,95) are available §  10 GByte: 9 hours of video @ 2.5 Mbit/s per month. Nothing else.

§  In our recent study for the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology we evaluated the capabilities of LTE assuming that LTE in unicast mode could be the solution of choice for delivering media content to people not only in metropolitan areas but even in rural regions


In Germany, the regulator wants everyone to be connected at 50 Mbit/s. Can LTE help? §  My colleagues in our department „Mobile Radio Systems“ simulated a complete LTE

network as follows: §  19 eNodeB (3 sectors each) in a hexagon grid §  Variation of the intersite distances from 500 m to 10 km §  Spectral efficiency 1,5 bit/s/Hz (LTE Rel. 8 SISO) §  Calculation of path loss according to Okumura-Hata including an additional penetration

loss of 20 dB (TR 36.814 - Table A.2.1.1-1) §  For the interference calculation we assumed that all ressource blocks of the neighbouring

cells are busy §  We assumed 20 concurrent users per km2 (rural areas in Germany are defined as having

less than 150 people/km2) §  For each scenario we generated 1000 snapshots for which the locations of the users were

distributed randomly in the cell area


Example 1: Intersite distance only 500 m

P1P2P3P5P10P20P30P40P50

5560

65130

135140

0

10

20

30

40

50

Bandbreite [MHz]

ISD 500 m

Perzentil

Mbit/s

Bandwidth [MHz]

§  In order to deliver 50 Mbit/s to 20 concurrent users per km2 on 50% of the locations inside the cell (perzentil P50), 140 MHz of spectrum is required

§  But who will build networks with an intersite distance of 500 m outside metropolitan areas?


Example 2: Intersite distance 2500 m

§  Here we assume a more realistic intersite distance of 2500 m. We also assume that users will operate an antenna with 10 dB gain. Using 140 MHz of spectrum, 20 users per km2 can expect 7,5 Mbit/s on 50 % of the locations

P1P2P3P5P10P20P30P40P50

5560

65130

135140

0

2

4

6

Bandbreite [MHz]

ISD 2500 m, SINR + 10 dB

Perzentil

Mbit/s

Bandwidth [MHz]


An interim conclusion §  If Live TV to Tablet PCs and similar devices will be an issue in an era in which classical

terrestrial TV no longer exists, we have no technology that has proven that it can take over

§  Some relief can be found in the Cisco VNI Mobile study 2013: In 2017 46% of the mobile traffic will be offloaded to WiFi or femtocells (but what about congestion there?)

§  My assumption is that Live TV on Tablet PCs and similar devices outside the home will be an issue and that neither LTE in unicast mode nor eMBMS will be the solution of choice – probably less for technical reasons but more for business reasons of the cellular network operators

§  This is why my team not only works on Dynamic Broadcasting but also on a Tower Overlay over LTE-A - in which DVB-T2 as an LTE-carrier plays an important role


Tower Overlay over LTE-A

§  In contrast to LTE eMBMS, which is based on the dense cellular infrastructure, broadcast services will be provided on a dedicated carrier via a tower overlay

§  The overlay becomes part of the LTE-A network by means of LTE-A carrier aggregation to ensure simultaneous reception of unicast and broadcast services

§  The idea is for network operators to agree on a single overlay

LTE-A cells: unicast services P2MP-Overlay: broadcast, multicast

LTE-‐A

P2MP

10 MHz 10 MHz

e.g. 2.6 GHz LTE Carrier

e.g. 700 MHz P2MP

f …

Primary Carrier Secondary Carrier

Example for non-contiguous carrier aggregation

Point-to-multipoint


Tower Overlay for LTE – DVB-T2 acting as LTE carrier §  By using the DVB-T2 Future Extension Frames we offer a solution for a time multiplex of

DVB-T2 broadcast content and LTE P2MP services with variable ressource allocation – up to the point where no broadcast content remains

Hybrid Modulator

T2-Data

LTE-P2MP

f

t

DVB-T2/P2MP carrier

LTE Local Unicast carrier

…

cross carrier signaling

DVB-T2-Modulator

LTE- Modulator

…

…

…

e.g. 2600 MHz

e.g. 700 MHz

T2-Data T2-Data T2-Data FEF-P2MP

FEF-P2MP

FEF-P2MP


But will there be spectrum left for such an approach? §  For Germany, we developed a number of band plans (with and without DVB-T2) §  This a band plan for the whole UHF band including some room for a Tower Overlay (size to

be defined later) – but no more spectrum for classical terrestrial TV

680 700 720 740 760 780 800

700

614

715

725

BOS 15 MHz

UL

775

790

Mobil DL

640 660620600

8 M

Hz PMSE

20 MHz

634

Mobilfunk 50 MHz

UL

BOS 15 MHz

DL

Mobilfunk 50 MHz

DL

606

MHz

500 520 540 560 580 600 620

614

520

530

480

8 M

Hz PMSE

20 MHz

470

Mobilfunk 50 MHz

UL

Mobilfunk 50 MHz

DL

606

MHz

PMSE 26 MHz

PMSE 26

MHz

...

...

580

...

...

10 M

Hz

Tower-Overlay 16 MHz 10

MH

z

650

PMSE: Program Making Special Events BOS: PPDR (Public Protection and Disaster Relief ) Mobilfunk: LTE networks


Conclusion §  Classical terrestrial broadcast plays an important role in many countries – but no longer

everywhere

§  Whereas stationary TV receivers can easily be connected to cable, a satellite dish or broadband internet, portable and mobile receivers require „wireless connectivity“

§  Will a world without classical terrestrial TV require Live TV on portable and mobile receivers – outside the reach of a personal WiFi network?

§  If so, then there is no technology which has proven that it can do the job

§  We offer a Tower Overlay over LTE-A as one possible solution


Thank you very much for you interest in my talk.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Reimers [email protected]

And thank you very much to my colleagues at home for their excellent contributions

terrestrial media delivery – beyond dvb-t2 · the audience will migrate to cable, satellite...

Documents