STEERING BOARD APPROVES UPDATE OF DVB-S2 FOR USE WITH WIDEBAND TRANSPONDERS
New Update Supports Cost Efficient Receiver Equipment For Reception Of Data Via Wideband Transponders.
Geneva – 11 July 2012 – At the 71st meeting of the DVB Steering Board, approval was given for an update of the DVB-S2 standard for use with wideband transponders. The update will allow efficient use of wideband transponders which are now becoming available.
A new annex addresses the use of DVB-S2 over satellite transponders, which are no longer 30 to 80 MHz wide but may have a bandwidth of several hundred MHz. In principle it would be possible to allocate several narrower channels inside the wideband transponders, but this would require the operation of the satellite transponder with reduced downlink power and therefore at a lower data rate. It would also be possible to develop satellite receivers that receive the complete wideband signal resulting in a very high data rate. Consequently the complexity of the receiver would be high. Therefore, a time-slicing concept has been adopted for the new extension where the receiver only processes its dedicated time-slice data. This approach significantly reduces the complexity for the receiver device, such as, satellite modems for internet via satellite and other professional services. Time slicing requires signalling and this is also covered in the new annex of the DVB-S2 specification.
In addition, the Steering Board agreed that DVB will start working on DVB-S2 extensions supporting the more efficient use of satellite transponders. DVB-S2 will continue to be the standard for direct-to-home satellite services whereas these updates will benefit the specification by optimizing it for contribution and other high-speed data rate services. The extensions take advantage of technical solutions that are available for implementing, e.g., lower roll-off factors with suppression of adjacent satellite carrier interference, and other existing methodologies for filter optimization of satellite channels. These improvements are designed to increase spectral efficiency.
A new version of the DVB-S2 BlueBook as well as the corresponding ETSI European Norm (EN 302 307) is to be published to include the new time slicing technology for wideband transponders.
About DVB
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is an industry-led consortium of over 230 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers, regulatory bodies and others committed to designing global standards for the delivery of digital television and data services. DVB standards cover all aspects of digital television from transmission through interfacing, conditional access and interactivity for digital video, audio and data. The consortium came together in 1993 to create unity in the move towards global standardization, interoperability and future proofing.
DVB dominates the digital broadcasting environment with thousands of broadcast services around the world using DVB’s open standards. There are hundreds of manufacturers offering DVB compliant equipment. To date there are over half a billion DVB receivers shipped worldwide. DVB standards are also widely used for other non-broadcasting applications such as data on the move and high-bandwidth internet over the air. Further information about DVB can be found at: www.dvb.org, www.mhp.org, www.dvbservices.com and www.dvbworld.org.
