Demonstrating the feasibility of standardized application program interfaces that will allow mobile/portable terminals to receive services combining UMTS and DVB-T

Crucial to the commercial exploitation of any service combining UMTS and DVB-T is the availability of standardized API’s adapted to the hybrid UMTS and DVB-T network and to the technical limitations of mobile/portable terminals. This paper describes work carried out in the European Commission Framework Program 5 (FP5) project CONFLUENT to demonstrate the feasibility of such Application Program Interfaces (API’s) by enabling the reception of a Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) based application transmitted over DVB-T on five different terminals with parts of the service running on a mobile phone

Incorporating Digital Repeaters into the Soft Handover Standard in Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld

Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H) is a standard for broadcasting IP data services to portable devices. Handover in unidirectional broadcast networks is a novel issue introduced by this technology. This paper proposes and analyses the Repeater Aided Soft Handover (RA_handover) algorithm for a DVB-H receiver with MIMO antennas and presents the benefits of implementing RA_handover compared with a handover process without repeaters. For network planning and optimisation purposes simulation models are developed to analyse the RA_handover approach. It is shown that RA_handover could greatly improve the quality of service and consume much less front-end battery power than a handover method without repeaters. In addition, the cost introduced by the algorithm is briefly estimated. In conclusion, curves are given that show the relationship between quality of service and consumed battery power, which provide further support for including RA_handover in the DVB-H soft handover standard. The paper provides valuable outcomes for service providers and standard policy makers

Management of Digital Video Broadcasting Services in Open Delivery Platforms

The future of Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is moving towards solutions offering an efficient way of carrying interactive IP multimedia services over digital terrestrial broadcasting networks to handheld terminals. One of the most promising technologies is Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H), at present under standardisation. Services deployed via this type of DVB technologies should enjoy reliability comparable to TV services and high quality standards. However, the market at present does not provide effective and economical solutions for the deployment of such services over multi-domain IP networks, due to their high level of unreliability. This paper focuses on service management, service level agreement (SLA) and network performance requirements of DVB-H services. Experimental results are presented concerning QoS sensitivity to network performance of DVB-H services delivered over a multi-domain IP network. Moreover, a solution for efficient and cost effective service management via QoS monitoring and control and network SLA design is proposed. The solution gives DVB-H operators the possibility of fully managing service QoS without being tied to third party operators