DVB-T2

DVB-T2 is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial; it is the extension of the television standard DVB-T, issued by the consortium DVB, devised for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television.

This system transmits compressed digital audio, video, and other data in "physical layer pipes" (PLPs), using OFDM modulation with concatenated channel coding and interleaving. The higher offered bit rate, with respect to its predecessor DVB-T, makes it a suited system for carrying HDTV signals on the terrestrial TV channel (though many broadcasters still use plain DVB-T for this purpose).

It is currently broadcasting in the UK (Freeview HD, four channels), Italy (Europa 7 HD, twelve channels), Sweden (five channels), Serbia (10 SD and HD version of the public broadcaster’s channel RTS), Ukraine (32 SD and HD channels in four nationwide multiplexes), Denmark and some other countries.

History

Preliminary investigation

In March 2006 DVB decided to study options for an upgraded DVB-T standard. In June 2006, a formal study group named TM-T2 (Technical Module on Next Generation DVB-T) was established by the DVB Group to develop an advanced modulation scheme that could be adopted by a second generation digital terrestrial television standard, to be named DVB-T2.

According to the commercial requirements and call for technologies issued in April 2007, the first phase of DVB-T2 would be devoted to provide optimum reception for stationary (fixed) and portable receivers (i.e., units which can be nomadic, but not fully mobile) using existing aerials, whereas a second and third phase would study methods to deliver higher payloads (with new aerials) and the mobile reception issue. The novel system should provide a minimum 30% increase in payload, under similar channel conditions already used for DVB-T.

The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five agreed with the regulator Ofcom to convert one UK multiplex (B, or PSB3) to DVB-T2 to increase capacity for HDTV via DTT. They expected the first TV region to use the new standard would be Granada in November 2009 (with existing switched over regions being changed at the same time). It was expected that over time there would be enough DVB-T2 receivers sold to switch all DTT transmissions to DVB-T2, and H.264.

Ofcom published its final decision on April 3, 2008 for HDTV using DVB-T2 and H.264: BBC HD would have one HD slot after digital switchover (DSO) at Granada. ITV and C4 had, as expected, applied to Ofcom for the 2 additional HD slots available from 2009 to 2012.

Ofcom indicated that it found an unused channel covering 3.7 million households in London, which could be used to broadcast the DVB-T2 HD multiplex from 2010, i.e., before DSO in London. Ofcom indicated that they would look for more unused UHF channels in other parts of the UK, that can be used for the DVB-T2 HD multiplex from 2010 until DSO.

The DVB-T2 specification

DVB-T2 test modulator developed by BBC Research & Innovation.

The DVB-T2 draft standard was ratified by the DVB Steering Board on June 26, 2008, and published on the DVB homepage as DVB-T2 standard BlueBook,. It was handed over to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) by DVB.ORG on June 20, 2008. The ETSI process resulted in the DVB-T2 standard being adopted on September 9, 2009. The ETSI process had several phases, but the only changes were text clarifications. Since the DVB-T2 physical layer specification was complete, and there would be no further technical enhancements, receiver VLSI chip design started with confidence in stability of specification. A draft PSI/SI (program and system information) specification document was also agreed with the DVB-TM-GBS group.

Tests

Prototype receivers were shown in September IBC 2008 and more recent version at the IBC 2009 in Amsterdam. A number of other manufacturers demonstrated DVB-T2 at IBC 2009 including Albis Technologies, Arqiva, DekTec, Enensys Technologies, Harris, Pace, Rohde & Schwarz, Tandberg, Thomson Broadcast and TeamCast. Other manufacturers planning DVB-T2 equipment launches include Alitronika, CellMetric, Cisco, Digital TV Labs, Humax, NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, ProTelevision Technologies, Screen Service, SIDSA, Sony, ST Microelectronics and T-VIPS. The first test from a real TV transmitter was performed by the BBC Research & Innovation in the last weeks of June 2008 using channel 53 from the Guildford transmitter, southwest of London: BBC had developed and built the modulator/demodulator prototype in parallel with the DVB-T2 standard being drafted. Other companies like ENKOM or IfN develop software (processor) based decoding.

NORDIG published a DVB-T2 receiver specification and performance requirement on the July 1, 2009. In March 2009 the Digital TV Group (DTG), the industry association for digital TV in the UK, published the technical specification for high definition services on digital terrestrial television (Freeview) using the new DVB-T2 standard. The DTG's test house: DTG Testing are testing Freeview HD products against this specification.

The standard

The following characteristics have been devised for the T2 standard:

• COFDM modulation with QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, or 256-QAM constellations.
• OFDM modes are 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k, and 32k. The symbol length for 32k mode is about 4 ms.
• Guard intervals are 1/128, 1/32, 1/16, 19/256, 1/8, 19/128, and 1/4. (For 32k mode, the maximum is 1/8.)
• FEC is concatenated LDPC and BCH codes (as in DVB-S2), with rates 1/2, 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, and 5/6.
• There are fewer pilots, in 8 different pilot-patterns, and equalization can be based also on the RAI CD3 system.
• In the 32k mode, a larger part of the standard 8 MHz channel can be used, adding about 2% extra capacity.
• DVB-T2 is specified for 1.7, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 MHz channel bandwidth.
• MISO (Multiple-Input Single-Output) may be used (Alamouti scheme), but MIMO will not be used. Diversity receivers can be used (as they are with DVB-T).
• Multiple PLP to enable service specific robustness.
• Bundling of more channels into a SuperMUX (called TFS) is not in the standard, but may be added later.

System differences with DVB-T

The following table reports a comparison of available modes in DVB-T and DVB-T2.

	DVB-T	DVB-T2
Forward Error Correction (FEC)	Convolutional Coding + Reed Solomon 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8	LDPC + BCH 1/2, 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6
Modulations	QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM	QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM
Guard Interval	1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32	1/4, 19/256, 1/8, 19/128, 1/16, 1/32, 1/128
Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) size	2k, 8k	1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k, 32k
Scattered Pilots	8% of total	1%, 2%, 4%, 8% of total
Continual Pilots	2.6% of total	0.35% of total

For instance, a UK MFN DVB-T profile (64-QAM, 2k mode, coding rate 2/3, guard interval 1/32) and a DVB-T2 equivalent (256-QAM, 32k, coding rate 3/5, guard interval 1/128) allows for an increase in bit rate from 24.13 Mbit/s to 35.4 Mbit/s (+46.5%). Another example, for an Italian SFN DVB-T profile (64-QAM, 8k, coding rate 2/3, guard interval 1/4) and a DVB-T2 equivalent (256-QAM, 32k, coding rate 3/5, guard interval 1/16), achieves an increase in bit rate from 19.91 Mbit/s to 33.3 Mbit/s (+67%).

Technical details

DVB-T2 at a glance.

Framing structure of DVB-T2.

The processing workflow is as follows:

• Input pre-processing
  • Physical Layer Pipe (PLP) creation: adaptation of Transport Stream (TS), Generic Stream Encapsulation (GSE), Generic Continuous Stream (GCS), or Generic Fixed-length Packetized Stream (GFPS)
• Input processing
  • Mode adaptation
    • Single PLP (mode 'A'): data are assembled in groups called BaseBand Frames (BBFRAMEs), with lengths of $K_{bch}$ bits, defined by modulation and coding (MODCOD) parameters, in a 'normal' length or 'short' length version
      • Input interface
      • CRC-8 encoding
      • BaseBand (BB) header insertion
    • Multiple PLPs (mode 'B')
      • Input interface
      • Input stream synchronization
      • Delay compensation
      • Null packets deletion
      • CRC-8 encoding
      • BB header insertion
  • Stream adaptation
    • Single PLP (mode 'A')
      • Padding insertion
      • BB scrambling: a Pseudo Random Binary Sequence (PRBS) with generator $1+x^{14}+x^{15}$ is used to scramble completely every BBFRAME
    • Multiple PLPs (mode 'B')
      • PLP scheduling
      • Frame delay
      • In-band signaling or padding insertion
      • BB scrambling
• Bit Interleaved Coding and Modulation (BICM)
  • Forward Error Correction (FEC) encoding: each BBFRAME is converted into a FECFRAME of $N_{ldpc}$ bits, by adding parity data. Normal FECFRAMEs are 64,800 bits long, whereas short FECFRAMEs are 16,200 bits long. The effective code rates are 32,208/64,800 (1/2), 38,688/64,800 (3/5), 43,040/64,800 (2/3), 48,408/64,800 (3/4), 51,648/64,800 (4/5), 53,840/64,800 (5/6)
    • Outer encoding: a BCH code, capable to correct 10 or 12 errors per FECFRAME, is used to compute parity data for the information data field. The BCH generator polynomial is of the 160th, 168th, or 192nd grade
    • Inner encoding: a Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) code is cascaded to the BCH
  • Bit interleaving
    • Parity bits block interleaving
    • Twist column interleaving
  • Bit demultiplexing to cell words

    

    Constellation map of the rotated 256-QAM modulation (tilt angle is 3.57 degrees).

  • Gray mapping of cell words to constellations: either QPSK (4-QAM), 16-QAM, 64-QAM, or 256-QAM maps are used
  • Constellation rotation and cyclic quadrature (Q) delay: optionally, the constellations may be tilted counterclockwise by an amount of up to 30 degrees. Furthermore, the quadrature (imaginary) part of the cells is cyclically shifted by one cell
  • Cell interleaving
  • Time interleaving
• Frame building: the transmitted stream is organized in super frames, which are composed by T2 frames and FEF (Future Extension Frame) parts
  • Cell mapping: cells are mapped to OFDM symbols. A T2 frame is composed by a P1 symbol, one or more P2 symbols, regular data symbols, and a Frame Closing symbol (for certain configuration parameters). The P1 symbol is used for synchronization purposes, the P2 symbols convey L1 parameter configuration signaling, whereas the data symbols carry PLP data (there are three types: common PLPs, type 1 PLPs, and type 2 PLPs), auxiliary streams, and dummy symbols used as space filler
  • Frequency interleaving: random interleaving is done on every OFDM symbol (except P1)
• OFDM generation
  • Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) processing: Alamouti pre-processing is optionally applied to pairs of OFDM symbol cells. Given $a_{i}$ the input cells, $e_{i}^{(1)}$ and $e_{i}^{(2)}$ transmitter group 1 and 2 cells, the mapping is done as $e_{i}^{(1)}=a_{i}$ and $e_{i+1}^{(1)}=a_{i+1}$ for group 1, and as $e_{i}^{(2)}=-a_{i+1}^{*}$ and $e_{i+1}^{(2)}=a_{i}^{*}$ for group 2
  • Pilot insertion and dummy tone reservation: three classes of pilot tones are added. They are either continual (fixed position), scattered (cyclically moving position), or edge (boundary positions). There are 8 different configuration for scattered pilots (PP1 ... PP8). Moreover, a number of dummy carriers are not modulated and reserved to reduce the dynamic range of the DVB-T2 output signal (it helps to combat nonlinear phenomena in power amplifiers during broadcast).
  • Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT): classic IDFT is used to switch from the frequency domain into the time domain, after having adjusted carrier position relevant to the central transmit frequency. 1k (1024) to 32k (32768) carriers are available. There is also an extended mode, which allows to fill more data in the available bandwidth, using more active carriers and reducing the number of guard band (null) carriers.
  • Peak-to-Average-Power-Ratio (PAPR) reduction
  • Guard interval insertion: a cyclic prefix is inserted before the IDFT symbol, to recover from transmit channel echoes (multipath). Lengths from 1/128 to 1/4 of the IDFT length are allowed.
  • P1 symbol insertion: the P1 symbol is a particularly crafted 1k OFDM symbol, always inserted at the head of a T2 frame. It conveys few bits of information (spread, scrambled and DBPSK modulated), as it is mainly dedicated to fast synchronization (both in time and in frequency) at the receiver side. It is prepended and postpended by frequency shifted repetitions of itself, to ease receiver lock even if the nominal center frequency of the T2 signal is up to 500 kHz off.
  • Digital-to-Analog Conversion (DAC): the T2 samples are converted into an analog BB complex (I&Q) signal at a sample rate that depends on the channelization bandwidth. For instance, in 8 MHz wide channels, the complex sample time is 7/64 μs.

Market adoption

When the digital terrestrial HDTV service Freeview HD was launched in December 2009, it was the first DVB-T2 service intended for the general public. As of November 2010, DVB-T2 broadcasts were available in a couple of European countries.

The earliest introductions of T2 have usually been tied with a launch of high-definition television. There are however some countries where HDTV is broadcast using the old DVB-T standard with no immediate plans to switch those broadcasts to DVB-T2. Among countries using DVB-T for nationwide broadcasts of HDTV are France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Spain, though usually with MPEG4. Only Australia is using the earlier DVB-T with MPEG2 for HD.

Countries where DVB-T2 is in use include:

• United Kingdom: one multiplex, soft launch in December 2009, full launch in April 2010
• Italy: one multiplex, soft launch in October 2010
• Sweden: two multiplexes, full launch in November 2010
• Finland: five multiplexes, soft launch in January 2011, full launch in February 2011
• Ukraine: four DVB-T2 multiplexes × 167 transmission sites, 150 of which have been officially launched on October 10, 2011
• Russia: one multiplex, full launch in March 2012
• Denmark: one multiplex, with TV2 Danmark in HD will launch April 2012
• Colombia: Adoption starts on 2012
• Israel: Expected to begin in 2013.
• Serbia: two multiplexes, soft launch in March 2012, full launch in April 2013
• Kenya: Mutlichoice Africa using theGOTV brand launched in September 2011
• Vietnam: three multiplexes, launched in November 11, 2011 by the Audio Visual Global JSC.
• Belgium: Expected to begin in March 2013
• Albania: one multiplex full launch in july 2011

The Southern African Development Community announced in November 2010 that DVB-T2 would be the preferred standard for the region. In Serbia, both SD and HD broadcasts will air in DVB-T2.

It has been trialled in Spain and Germany. Sri Lanka and Austria is also expected to use it.

Currently Malaysia, which has yet to officially launch its DVB-T transmission, is running tests on DVB-T2.. Whether the system will be adopted only for HD channels or will replace its existing trial DVB-T system, if adopted at all, remains unannounced.

UK

Main article: Freeview HD

As of 2010, in the UK terrestrial television system, there is only one multiplex (the slot corresponding to one channel in analog broadcasting and to many channels in digital broadcasting) assigned to digital broadcasting in the DVB-T2 standard. This multiplex is controlled by the service company Freeview HD, which has offered to host up to five DVB-T2 HD channels on it.

Freeview HD started its "technical launch" on December 2, 2009, hosting BBC HD, and ITV1 HD. On March 30, 2010, Freeview HD had its official launch, and added Channel 4 HD to its broadcasts. The fourth channel hosted is BBC One HD, while as of March 2010 the remaining fifth slot is still to be assigned.

As of September 2010, Freeview covers 77% of UK population, and plans to finally reach 98.5% in 2012, following the region by region digital switchover all over the country.

The 5th HD stream on the DVB-T2 multiplex was going to be used by Channel 5 for their HD service, but they withdrew their application to Ofcom for the slot in December 2011.

In June 2012, the BBC launched a temporary stream in order to broadcast an high-definition red button service for the 2012 Olympics on Freeview, along-side BBC One HD and BBC HD. At the time, it was still undecided as to the permanent use of the 5th stream after the Olympics.

Croatia

On October 13, 2011, the Croatian Post and Electronic Communications Agency granted license for MUX C and MUX E, both in DVB-T2 standard.

Also in October 2011 OiV - Transmitters & Communications started testing on UHF channel 53 from Sljeme and Zagreb - Prisavlje 3.

Italy

Main article: Europa 7 HD

In Italy, Europa 7 obtained a national multiplex (the slot corresponging to one channel in analog broadcasting and to many channels in digital broadcasting) in spring 2010, and decided to use it for transmitting in DVB-T2. Europa 7 HD was the name chosen to the offer of digital TV channels. Having a full multiplex for itself, Europa 7 HD hosts twelve alternating channels, of which eight in HD.

Europa 7 HD began testing broadcasts on July 2010, and started broadcasting from October 2010. While BBC, ITV1 and Channel 4 have only one or two of their channels in DVB-T2, Europa 7 HD transmits all of its channels with this technology; it has been announced as "the first broadcaster in the world to broadcast with this new technology."

Europa 7 HD is the first Italian broadcaster to adopt the DVB-T2 technology, and is doing so as an unilateral initialive, as there is not a general plan in Italy to adopt DVB-T2 for the other broadcasters. The two dominating broadcasters Rai (public) and Mediaset (private) still use DVB-T for their HDTV channels. Rai has planned some tests with DVB-T2, but has not a short-term plan for the general public to switch to DVB-T2, and the country is not yet fully switched from analog to DVB-T. Europa 7 HD owner Francesco Di Stefano declared that all broadcasters will eventually have to move from T1 to T2, because of the higher quality.

Russia

In September 2011 Russian governmental authorities have approved the decision that since this date all newly built terrestrial digital TV networks will use the DVB-T2 standard. In some regions of Russia DVB-T/MPEG-4 networks (mostly consisting of one multiplex) have already been deployed before this decision was made.

On March 1, 2012 "Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network" has started DVB-T2 broadcasting in Tatarstan. This is the first region in Russia where DVB-T2 is being used.

Serbia

On May 2009, the Serbian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society officially announced that the DVB-T2 standard will be the national digital terrestrial broadcasting standard for both SD and HD. Serbia has become one of the first countries to commit to the DVB-T2 standard. First public test with DVB-T2 signal in Serbia was during Telfor 2009 conference in Belgrade. Analog switch off has been planned for April 4, 2012. But it was postponed to 2013. On 21 March 2012 JP ETV started trial DVB-T2 transmission across Serbia offering viewers a total of 10 SD channels and a HD version of the public broadcaster’s channel RTS.

South Africa

On January 14, 2011, the South African Department of Communication officially announced that the DVB-T2 standard will be the national digital terrestrial broadcasting standard. Analog switch off has been planned for December 2013.

Sweden

Further information: Digital terrestrial television in Sweden

On June 17, 2010, the Swedish Radio and TV Authority and the Swedish Government granted a total of nine licenses to broadcast channels in HDTV spread over two multiplexes using DVB-T2.

Broadcasts started on November 1, 2010, with five channels available initially: SVT1 HD, SVT2 HD, MTVN HD, National Geographic HD and Canal+ Sport HD. From this date a coverage of 70% of the population is achieved, with 90% expected by mid 2011 and nationwide coverage by 2012.

Turkey

Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) is testing TRT HD in Ankara-Dikmen UHF channel 31.

Ukraine

Ukraine's national terrestrial TV network (built and maintained by the Zeonbud company) uses the DVB-T2 standard for all four nationwide FTV (cardless CAS "Irdeto Cloaked CA") multiplexes, for both SD and HD broadcasts. Before settling for DVB-T2, Ukraine was testing both DVB-T/MPEG-2 and DVB-T/MPEG-4 options, and some experimental transmitters operating in those standards are still live. Ukraine has never had a full-fledged nationwide DVB-T network, thus not having to do a DVB-T-to-DVB-T2 migration.

Zeonbud's network consists of 167 transmitter sites, each carrying four DVB-T2 multiplexes, with transmitter power ranging from 2 kW to 50 W (all in in MFN mode). As of October 10, 2011, 150 of the 167 transmitter sites have officially gone live. The biggest problem of Ukraine's DVB-T2 rollout for now is the acute shortage of inexpensive DVB-T2 set-top-boxes.

The four multiplexes carry in total 28 nationwide channels (same for all transmitter sites, distributed via satellite) and 4 local channels. Up to 8 of those 28 nationwide channels can broadcast in HD format.

Slovenia

DVB-T2 test channel is transmitted from mount Nanos on 41UHF channel, Skalnica on 45UHF and Beli križ on 33UHF(occasionally).

Vietnam

As of November 11, 2011, two DVB-T2 SFN networks of the Audio Visual Global JSC have been officially launched in both Hanoi an HoChiMinh city. Each network with three multiplexes carry totally 40 SD, 05 HD and 05 audio channels (MPEG-4/H264).

Albania

On july, 2011 "DIGITALB" has started DVB-T2 broadcasting in Tirana.

See also

• OFDM system comparison table

References

• DVB document A122, Frame structure channel coding and modulation for a second generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting system (DVB-T2) ,
• DVB document A133 Implementation guidelines for a second generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting system (DVB-T2) and
• DVB document A136 Modulator Interface (T2-MI) for a second generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting system (DVB-T2) are available at the dvb.org website.
• DVB-T2 Fact Sheet, March 2010
• Freeview UK

Further reading

• Tra qualità e sicurezza Europa 7 gioca le sue carte

External links

• Website of the DVB Project
• DigiTAG handbook on DVB-T2
• OFCOM DTT future
• OFCOM Pilots
• Overview of DVB-T2 by Enensys