Europe's Leading Cable Operators Signal Their Support for DVB-C2

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
DVB Project logo

Nine of Europe’s leading cable network operators, representing more than 35 million connected homes, have shown their immediate support and declared their intention to exploit the operational potential of DVB-C2. In a signed statement cable network operators YouSee (Denmark), Numericable (France), Kabel Baden Württemberg, Unitymedia, Kabel Deutschland (Germany), Ziggo (The Netherlands), ZON (Portugal), ONO (Spain) and Com Hem (Sweden) welcomed DVB-C2, the second generation baseline transmission system for digital television broadcasting via cable networks.

Peter Siebert, Executive Director, DVB Project commenting on the statement said, “We are pleased with the support for DVB-C2, the youngest member of the DVB family of second generation transmission systems. The new standard will provide the additional capacity required for the introduction of new tiers of HDTV, video-on-demand and interactive TV services providing real opportunities for MSOs.”

DVB-C2 employs the latest modulation and coding techniques to enable highly efficient use of cable networks. It offers a range of modes and options that can be optimised for the different network characteristics and the requirements of the different services planned for delivery to cable customers. It offers greater than 30% higher spectrum efficiency under the same conditions as today’s DVB-C deployments. After analogue switch-off the gains in downstream capacity will be greater than 60% for optimised HFC networks.

Christoph Schaaf, of Kabel Deutschland and Chairman of the DVB TM-C2 Group stated, “MSOs can see a real opportunity in the enhanced efficiency and flexibility of DVB-C2, especially when planning the introduction of new services or deployment of new emerging technologies.”

In instances where downstream transmission capacity is already being used to its limit, DVB-C2 can be deployed for the delivery of innovative new services, such as video-on-demand and HDTV. DVB-C2 was designed to help digital operators remain competitive and meet the permanently growing demand for downstream capacity.

DVB-C2 is typified by the following characteristic:

  • DVB-C uses QAM (16,32, 64, 128, 256-QAM) but DVB-C2 adds COFDM and higher order QAM (all the way up to 65536-QAM);
  • a flexible input stream adapter, suitable for operation with single and multiple input streams of various formats (packetised or continuous);
  • a powerful FEC system based on LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check) codes concatenated with BCH (Bose Chaudhuri Hocquenghem) codes, allowing Quasi Error Free operation close to the Shannon limit, depending on the transmission mode (AWGN channel, modulation constrained Shannon limit);
  • a wide range of code rates (from 2/3 up to 9/10); 5 constellations, ranging in spectrum efficiency from 1 to 10.8 bit/s/Hz, optimised for operation in cable networks;
  • Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM) functionality, optimising channel coding and modulation on a frame-by-frame basis.

DVB-C2 is to be published by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) as EN 302 769 V1.1.1. Further information on DVB-C2 can be found on the DVB website along with the DVB BlueBook A138.