Jaime López Sánchez

The in-band provision of fixed and mobile services and the insertion of local services in Single Frequency Networks (SFN) are two key topics for the optimization of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) networks. On one hand, the transmission of mobile TV services requires the allocation of specific bandwidth and dedicated networks to achieve good coverage levels. The costs associated to the deployment of these dedicated networks and the lack of a successful business model have been the main causes of the failure of the first-generation mobile TV technologies. In this sense, the convergence of fixed and mobile paradigms can facilitate the introduction of mobile TV services by allowing the reuse of spectrum, content and infrastructure. On the other hand, neither SFN nor Multi Frequency Network (MFN) topologies used for the current DTT networks are ideally suited for delivery of both global and local services in an efficient way. MFNs enable the efficient transmission of local services but need a significant amount of frequency spectrum. Without violating the SFN principle, local services meant to address sub regions of an SFN must therefore be transmitted throughout the whole network, causing inefficient distribution of local services. Therefore, the efficient provision of global and local TV contents in SFN topologies allow saving bandwidth and guaranteeing an optimal use of the spectrum.
This dissertation investigates technical solutions to optimize the simultaneous delivery of fixed and mobile DTT services and the efficient transmissionof global and local services using the same Radio Frequency (RF) channel and network infrastructure. The technical solutions are focused on the European family of standards developed by the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) consortium. This include Digital Video Broadcasting- Terrestrial (DVB-T) and Digital Video Broadcasting- Terrestrial 2nd Generation (DVB-T2), as well as the next generation system Digital Video Broadcasting- Next Generation Handheld (DVB-NGH). Nevertheless, the work carried out in this dissertation is of generic nature and can be applied to future evolutions of standards such as the Japanese Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB-T), the Future of Broadcast Television (FOBTV) initiative or the American Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) 3.0. Our investigations are based on physical layer simulations, laboratory tests and field measurements to assess the performance of the different techniques. Complementary, we analyze the applicability of these solutions by means of coverage estimations in realistic scenarios using a professional DTT network planning tool and information of the current DTT network deployed in Valencia Spain city and the DTT network design of the public TV broadcaster of Colombia.
The provision of mobile broadcasting services is significantly more challenging than traditional fixed services...