Interference Analysis Between Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and 4G LTE Mobile Networks in the Digital Dividend Bands

With the introduction of digital terrestrial television (DTT) and the analogue television switch-off, terrestrial broadcast spectrum in the UHF band is being released for mobile communications, in particular for fourth generation (4G) long term evolution (LTE) mobile services. This spectrum is known as digital dividend. An impending problem when deploying 4G LTE mobile networks in the digital dividend bands is that interferences may appear in the adjacent radio frequency channels used for DTT. In this paper, we analyze the adjacent coexistence of DTT and 4G LTE networks in the digital dividend bands at 700 MHz and 800 MHz. A generic framework is adopted such that results can be easily extrapolated to different scenarios and bands. Results are presented as a function of the guard band between technologies, for both LTE uplink and downlink adjacent to the DTT signals, and for fixed outdoor and portable indoor DTT reception. Also, the effect of using anti-LTE filters is studied.This work was supported by the Spectrum Regulator of Colombia ANE (Agencia Nacional del Espectro).Ribadeneira Ramírez, JA.; Martínez, G.; Gómez Barquero, D.; Cardona, N. (2016). Interference Analysis Between Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and 4G LTE Mobile Networks in the Digital Dividend Bands. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. 62(1):24-34. doi:10.1109/TBC.2015.2492465S243462

Coexistence of digital terrestrial television and next generation cellular networks in the 700 MHz band

"(c) 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works."With the spectrum liberation obtained by the deployment of digital terrestrial television and the analog TV switch-off, new bands are being assigned to IMT LTE. In the first cellular deployments in the digital dividend at the 800 MHz band, problems emerged due to the interference cellular networks can cause to DTT signals. Possible solutions imply either an inefficient use of the spectrum (increasing the guard band and reducing the number of DTT channels) or a high cost (using anti-LTE filters for DTT receivers). The new spectrum allocated to mobile communications is the 700 MHz band, also known as the second digital dividend. In this new IMT band, the LTE uplink is placed in the lower part of the band. Hence, the ITU-R invited several studies to be performed and reported the results to WRC-15. In this article, we analyze the coexistence problem in the 700 MHz band and evaluate the interference of LTE signals to DTT services. Several coexistence scenarios have been considered, and laboratory tests have been performed to measure interference protection ratios.Fuentes, M.; García Pardo, C.; Garro Crevillen, E.; Gómez Barquero, D.; Cardona Marcet, N. (2014). Coexistence of digital terrestrial television and next generation cellular networks in the 700 MHz band. IEEE Wireless Communications. 21(6):63-69. doi:10.1109/MWC.2014.7000973S636921

Compact low-cost filter for 5G interference reduction in UHF broadcasting band

The allocation of part of the UHF band to 4G and 5G services has generated the appearance of channel interferences over the digital terrestrial television frequency band. In order to reduce these interferences, this work presents a novel and efficient band-stop filter implemented using microstrip technology. The filter, designed with rectangular split-ring resonators etched in the ground plane, provides a cutoff frequency above channel 48 (694 MHz), a high roll-off rate of 44 dB in 56 MHz and a rejection bandwidth of 250 MHz that covers the upper UHF band occupied by 4G and 5G with rejection levels close to 35 dB. The filter is manufactured entirely over a printed circuit board without lumped elements to reduce production costs, fine tuning after the assembly stage and maintenance. Moreover, it presents a compact subwavelength size of only 0.07 λ × 0.17 λ to facilitate installation, whether at the input of the TV terminal or integrated with the balun at the rooftop antenna.This research was funded in part by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and in part by the European Regional Development Fund under Grant PGC2018-098350-B-C22

Interference Analysis for DVB-T2 Network Planning in Colombia with other Television Broadcasting Technologies

"(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works."[EN] Across the Andean Region the Digital Television (DTT)is already in motion. While most of countries in South America have adopted the Brazilian adaptation of the Japanese DTT standard ISDB-Tb, Colombia selected the second-generation Europan DTT standard DVB-T2, generating unique and completely new coexistence broadcasting scenarios, Firstly, it is the first region in the word in which DVB-T2 and ISDB-Tb coexist. Additionally, DVB-T2 have to coexist with analogue TV NTSC transmissions until the analogue switch-off. This paper provides interference protection ratios based on laboratory measurements and performs coexistence studies in realistic scenarios to illustrate the importance of assessing the protection ratios to achieve an efficient spectrum usage.This work was partialy supported by the ANE (Agencia Nacional del Espectro) of Colombia.Ribadeneira-Ramírez, JA.; García Pardo, C.; Fuentes Muela, M.; Gómez Barquero, D.; Cardona Marcet, N. (2016). Interference Analysis for DVB-T2 Network Planning in Colombia with other Television Broadcasting Technologies. IEEE Latin America Transactions. 14(3):1162-1168. doi:10.1109/TLA.2016.7459594S1162116814

Spectrum Sharing for LTE-A and DTT: Field Trials of an Indoor LTE-A Femtocell in DVB-T2 Service Area

(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.In this paper, we study a particular case which goes a step beyond the previous ones, as it aims at sharing the same frequency band in the same area between long term evolution-advance (LTE-A) and digital video broadcasting-terrestrial second generation (DVB-T2) technologies. Those geographical areas that are not covered because the useful DTT signal is obstructed by the environment or it has a limited coverage by the network design can be called micro-TVWS. We assume that a DVB-T2 transmitter provides coverage for fixed rooftop reception as a primary service, to a building in which a LTE-A femtocell is installed indoors for local coverage, as a secondary service. The results have been obtained by laboratory emulation and validated through field measurements using professional equipment. Our results provide the technical restrictions of the LTE-A femtocell, mainly on the maximum allowable effective isotropic radiated power that could transmit on the DTT band in terms of carrier separation, from co-channel to adjacent band. These results meet the need of spectrum for IMT-Advanced technologies, so spectrum sharing is proposed in this paper as a new solution to make an efficient use of this resource.This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Spain, under Grant "DEFINE5G" TEC2014-60258-C2-1-R and Grant "ARCO5G" TEC2014-56469-REDT, and in part by the European FEDER Funds.Martínez Pinzón, G.; Cardona Marcet, N.; García Pardo, C.; Fornés Leal, A.; Ribadeneira-Ramírez, JA. (2016). Spectrum Sharing for LTE-A and DTT: Field Trials of an Indoor LTE-A Femtocell in DVB-T2 Service Area. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. 62(3):552-561. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBC.2016.2582338S55256162

Spectrum Policy and Management

This project provides an examination of the FCC’s policies towards spectrum reallocation. The project examines the National Broadband Plan and how the FCC has approached the goals described within it. The demand for broadband communications has increased dramatically in recent years and has resulted in a predicted spectrum deficit in the near future. In addition to a number of spectrum auctions and their winners the project examines how the redistribution of spectrum impacts the broadband community. The project also provides an examination of spectrum reallocation and policy in other countries, to provide a broader view of spectrum policy. Finally the project examines new spectrum technologies and spectrum usage policies to further examine how the US’s spectrum policies should evolve

Field Measurements in Determining Incumbent Spectrum Utilization and Protection Criteria in Wireless Co-existence Studies

Studies of spectrum sharing and co-existence between different wireless communication systems are important, as the current aim is to optimize their spectrum utilization and shift from static exclusive spectrum allocation to more dynamic co-existence of different systems within same frequency bands. The main goal of this thesis is to provide measurement methodologies for obtaining realistic results in modeling incumbent spectrum utilization and in determining incumbent protection criteria. The following research questions are considered in this thesis: Q1) How should field measurements be conducted and used to model incumbent spectrum utilization? Q2) How should field measurements be conducted and used to determine protection criteria for incumbents in a co-existence scenario with mobile broadband? and Q3) Which licensing methods and technological solutions are feasible to enable spectrum sharing in frequency bands with incumbents? To answer to Q1, this thesis describes the development of a spectrum observatory network concept created through international collaboration and presents measurement methodologies, which allow to obtain realistic spectrum occupancy data over geographical areas using interference map concept. A cautious approach should be taken in making strong conclusions from previous single fixed location spectrum occupancy studies, and measurements covering larger geographical areas might be needed if the measurement results are to be used in making spectrum management decisions. The field interference measurements considered in Q2 are not covered well in the current research literature. The measurements are expensive to conduct as they require substantial human resources, test network infrastructure, professional level measurement devices and radio licenses. However, field measurements are needed to study and verify hypotheses from computer simulations or theoretical analyses in realistic operating conditions, as field measurement conditions can not or are not practical to be adequately modeled in simulations. This thesis proposes measurement methodologies to obtain realistic results from field interference measurements, taking into account the propagation environments and external sources of interference. Less expensive simulations and laboratory measurements should be used both to aid in the planning of field measurements and to complement the results obtained from field measurements. Q3 is investigated through several field interference measurement campaigns to determine incumbent protection criteria and by analyzing the spectrum observatory data to determine the occupancy and trends in incumbent spectrum utilization. The field interference measurement campaigns have been conducted in real TV White Space, LTE Supplemental Downlink and Licensed Shared Access test network environments, and the obtained measurement results have been contributed to the development of the European spectrum regulation. In addition, field measurements have been conducted to contribute to the development and technical validation of the spectrum sharing frameworks. This thesis also presents an overview of the current status and possible directions in spectrum sharing. In conclusion, no single spectrum sharing method can provide universally optimal efficiency in spectrum utilization. Thus, an appropriate spectrum sharing framework should be chosen taking into account both the spectrum utilization of the current incumbents and the future needs in wireless communications.Siirretty Doriast

Time Frequency Slicing for Future Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Networks

“© © 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.”Time Frequency Slicing (TFS) is a novel transmission technique for the future of terrestrial broadcasting. TFS breaks with the traditional transmission of TV services over single RF channels.With TFS, services are distributed across several channels by frequency hopping and time-slicing. The bundling of several RF channels into a TFS multiplex provides important advantages. A capacity gain is obtained due to a more efficient statistical multiplexing of video content since more services can be encoded in parallel. Improved frequency diversity also provides a coverage gain since signal imbalances between RF channels can be smoothed. Enhanced robustness against static and time varying interferences can also be achieved. TFS was described, although not implemented, for DVB-T2 and was fully adopted in DVB-NGH. At present, it is proposed for a future evolution of DVB-T2 and will also be considered in the ongoing ATSC 3.0 standard. This paper investigates the potential advantages of TFS by means of field measurements as well as simulations and discusses practical implementation aspects and requirements regarding transmission and reception. Results demonstrate the interesting advantages of TFS to improve both coverage and spectral efficiency, which addresses the future necessity of a more efficient DTT spectrum usage.Gimenez Gandia, JJ.; Stare, E.; Bergsmark, S.; Gómez Barquero, D. (2014). Time Frequency Slicing for Future Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Networks. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. 60(2):227-238. doi:10.1109/TBC.2014.2315766S22723860

Interference Analysis between Mobile Radio and Digital Terrestrial Television in the Digital Dividend Spectrum

This paper is concerned with the analysis of adjacent channel interference of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile system operating in the Digital Dividend into Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB–T) system. Field measurements in the real LTE network have been conducted in order to define the most significant scenarios and for each of these, Protection Ratios have been quantified. Variable load on the LTE base station has been taken into consideration. Therefore, Protection Ratios for the LTE base station in idle state, and fully dedicated mode have been calculated. Interference mitigation techniques have been reviewed, and an effective deployment method has been proposed