Alcatel-Lucent demonstrates enhanced video quality for DVB-SH broadcast mobile TV at IFA 2008

Friday, August 29th, 2008
Alcatel-Lucent logo

IFA, BERLIN — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is showcasing its leadership in the deployment of broadcast mobile TV at the world’s largest Consumer Electronics trade fair, the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) 2008, held from August 29 to September 3 in Berlin (Alcatel-Lucent booth: Technical and Scientific Forum (TWF) in Hall 5.3, Booth #22).

During IFA 2008, Alcatel-Lucent is demonstrating, for the first time in Europe, MPE-iFEC (Multi-Protocol Encapsulation – inter-burst Forward Error Correction), a powerful error-correction coding that improves the quality of broadcast mobile TV reception in hybrid satellite and terrestrial networks. This innovative feature is embedded in the DVB-SH mobile broadcast standard (Digital Video Broadcast – Satellite services to Handhelds).

DVB-SH is an evolution of DVB-H and a powerful mobile broadcast standard allowing cost-effective mobile TV deployments. It can be used in any frequency spectrum below 3GHz, including UHF, L band and S band, and in terrestrial, satellite or hybrid networks. The DVB-SH waveform definition was published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in March 2008.

In a satellite DVB-SH reception context, MPE-iFEC is an extension of the traditional MPE-FEC (Multi-Protocol Encapsulation Forward Error Correction) error correction system used in terrestrial systems. The MPE-FEC extension through inter-burst FEC compensates long shadowing by providing additional time diversity. MPE-iFEC is an attractive alternative to the long physical interleaver standard option for those small receivers which cannot afford a large and fast de-interleaving memory.

Furthermore, applied to a terrestrial DVB-SH reception context, the MPE-iFEC feature significantly enhances the error-correction performances, improving the video image quality of broadcast mobile TV for the end-users.

The demonstration at IFA 2008 is using DVB-SH ready “SAGEM myMobileTV” handsets from Sagem Mobiles, empowered by DiBcom’s DVB-SH ready receivers, receiving a selection of pre-recorded contents in the 2.2GHz (S-Band) frequency spectrum.

The S-Band frequency spectrum is currently available throughout Europe. On August 7, 2008, the European Commission opened a competition for providers of communication services via satellite across Europe. Using the S-Band, satellite operators will, for the first time, be able to offer services such as high speed data, mobile TV, disaster relief and remote medical services under a single European selection procedure instead of under 27 different national systems. This is made possible by a new EU decision on mobile satellite services that entered into force in July 2008.