Device Arena

Alcatel-Lucent 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.

Alcatel-Lucent