A cross impact methodology for the assessment of US telecommunications system with application to fiber optics development, volume 1

A cross impact model of the U.S. telecommunications system was developed. It was necessary to prepare forecasts of the major segments of the telecommunications system, such as satellites, telephone, TV, CATV, radio broadcasting, etc. In addition, forecasts were prepared of the traffic generated by a variety of new or expanded services, such as electronic check clearing and point of sale electronic funds transfer. Finally, the interactions among the forecasts were estimated (the cross impact). Both the forecasts and the cross impacts were used as inputs to the cross impact model, which could then be used to stimulate the future growth of the entire U.S. telecommunications system. By varying the inputs, technology changes or policy decisions with regard to any segment of the system could be evaluated in the context of the remainder of the system. To illustrate the operation of the model, a specific study was made of the deployment of fiber optics throughout the telecommunications system

Analysis and Simulation of the Signals Transmission in the DVB-H/SH Standards

Tato disertační práce se zabývá analýzou, simulací a měřením zpracování a přenosu signálů digitální televize pro příjem mobilního TV vysílání ve standardech DVB-H a DVB-SH. Tyto standardy vycházejí z předpokladu, že příjem signálu je charakterizován modely přenosových kanálů s vícecestným šířením. Tyto, tzv. únikové kanály, jsou charakterizovány hlavně zpožděním a ziskem jednotlivých cest. V závislosti na dalších parametrech (rychlost přijímače, Dopplerovské spektrum), je možné rozdělit únikové kanály do třech hlavních skupin: mobilní, přenosné a fixní. Dá se předpokládat, že v různých modelech kanálů bude přenášený signál různě ovlivněn. Proto je potřebné najít optimální parametry systémů (DVB-H/SH) pro kvalitní příjem vysílaných služeb mobilní televize, což je hlavním cílem této disertační práci. Pro tento účel byly vytvořeny dvě vhodné aplikace (jedna pro DVB-H a jedna pro DVB-SH) s GUI v prostředí MATLAB, které umožňují simulovat a analyzovat míru zkreslení signálu v případě mobilních, přenosných a fixních scénářů přenosu. Navíc, tyto aplikace obsahují i druhý samostatný simulátor pro nastavení a modifikaci parametrů jednotlivých přenosových cest. Díky tomu je možné zhodnotit vliv parametrů celého systému a kanálových modelů na dosaženou chybovost (BER a MER) a kvalitu přenosu. Ve všech přenosových scénářích (v závislosti na poměru C/N) byly získané, vyhodnocené a diskutované zkreslení signálů. Navíc, u standardu DVB-H, všechny získané výsledky ze simulací byly ověřeny měřením. Rozdíly mezi dosaženými výsledky (simulace a měření) byly rovněž podrobeny diskuzi. Tuto disertační práci je možné rozdělit do čtyř hlavních částí. První část disertační práce se zabývá rešerší současného vývoje v oblasti digitálního televizního vysílání na mobilní terminály ve standardech DVB-H/SH. Na konci této části jsou jasně popsány cíle této disertační práce. Druhá část práce je zaměřená na stručný popis blokového diagramu vysílačů v obou standardech DVB-H/SH. Dále jsou stručně popsány modely přenosových kanálů, které se používají pro modelování přenosu signálu. Stručný popis vytvořených aplikací, i s vývojovým diagramem, které jsou vhodné pro simulaci a analýzu přenosu v DVB-H/SH, jsou popsány v třetí části práce. Čtvrtá a nejdelší část této disertační práce se zabývá vyhodnocením získaných výsledků ze simulací a měření.This dissertation thesis deals with the analysis, simulation and measurement of the signal processing and transmission in DVB-H and DVB-SH standards. These standards are based on the assumption that signal reception is characterized by the transmission channels with echoes. These, so called fading channels, are mainly characterized by the path delays and path losses. Depending on the other, additional features (speed of the receiver, Doppler spectrum, etc.), it can be possible divided these channels onto three main groups: mobile, portable and fixed. Of course, signal transmission in different transmission channel models are affected differently. Therefore, it is needed found the optimal system parameters in both, DVB-H and DVB-SH standards, for the quality reception of the broadcasted mobile TV services, which is the main goal of this thesis. For this purpose, two appropriate applications (one for DVB-H and one for DVB-SH) with GUI were created in MATLAB, which enable simulated and analyzed the signal distortions in mobile, portable and fixed transmission scenarios. Moreover, these applications also contain a second application with GUI for the easy set and modification of the parameters of the used channel models. Therefore, it is possible to evaluate the effect of parameters of whole system and channel models on the achieved error rate (BER and MER) and quality of the transmission. In all mentioned transmission scenarios, the signal distortions (depending on the Carrier-to-Noise ratio) were obtained, evaluated and discussed in this dissertation thesis. Furthermore, in case of DVB-H, all obtained results from the simulations, were verified by the measuring. Differences between the obtained results (simulation and measuring) are also discussed. This dissertation thesis can be divided into four main parts. The first part of this dissertation thesis, after the short introduction, deals with present state-of-the-art and literature survey in mobile broadcast DVB-H/SH standards. At the end of this part are clearly outlined the main aims of this dissertation thesis. Second part is focused on the brief description of the functional block diagram of transmitters in both, DVB-H/SH standards. Furthermore, there are briefly described the transmission fading channel models, which are commonly used for the modeling of the signal transmission. The brief description of program applications with flowcharts, appropriate for the simulation of the transmission in the DVB-H/SH standards, are presented and described in the third part of this thesis. Finally, the fourth and longest part of this thesis is focused on the evaluation and comparison of obtained results from the simulations and measurements.

Study of spread spectrum multiple access systems for satellite communications with overlay on current services

The feasibility of using spread spectrum techniques to provide a low-cost multiple access system for a very large number of low data terminals was investigated. Two applications of spread spectrum technology to very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite communication networks are presented. Two spread spectrum multiple access systems which use a form of noncoherent M-ary FSK (MFSK) as the primary modulation are described and the throughput analyzed. The analysis considers such factors as satellite power constraints and adjacent satellite interference. Also considered is the effect of on-board processing on the multiple access efficiency and the feasibility of overlaying low data rate spread spectrum signals on existing satellite traffic as a form of frequency reuse is investigated. The use of chirp is examined for spread spectrum communications. In a chirp communication system, each data bit is converted into one or more up or down sweeps of frequency, which spread the RF energy across a broad range of frequencies. Several different forms of chirp communication systems are considered, and a multiple-chirp coded system is proposed for overlay service. The mutual interference problem is examined in detail and a performance analysis undertaken for the case of a chirp data channel overlaid on a video channel

Algebraic Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Space-Time Codes for Digital Broadcasting in SFN

Lately, different methods for broadcasting future digital TV in a single frequency network (SFN) have been under an intensive study. To improve the transmission to also cover suburban and rural areas, a hybrid scheme may be used. In hybrid transmission, the signal is transmitted both from a satellite and from a terrestrial site. In 2008, Y. Nasser et al. proposed to use a double layer 3D space-time (ST) code in the hybrid 4 x 2 MIMO transmission of digital TV. In this paper, alternative codes with simpler structure are proposed for the 4 x 2 hybrid system, and new codes are constructed for the 3 x 2 system. The performance of the proposed codes is analyzed through computer simulations, showing a significant improvement over simple repetition schemes. The proposed codes prove in addition to be very robust in the presence of power imbalance between the two sites.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, submitted to ISIT 201

Evaluation of cross-layer reliability mechanisms for satellite digital multimedia broadcast

This paper presents a study of some reliability mechanisms which may be put at work in the context of Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (SDMB) to mobile devices such as handheld phones. These mechanisms include error correcting codes, interleaving at the physical layer, erasure codes at intermediate layers and error concealment on the video decoder. The evaluation is made on a realistic satellite channel and takes into account practical constraints such as the maximum zapping time and the user mobility at several speeds. The evaluation is done by simulating different scenarii with complete protocol stacks. The simulations indicate that, under the assumptions taken here, the scenario using highly compressed video protected by erasure codes at intermediate layers seems to be the best solution on this kind of channel

Satellite system performance assessment for in-flight entertainment and air traffic control

Concurrent satellite systems have been proposed for IFE (In-Flight Entertainment) communications, thus demonstrating the capability of satellites to provide multimedia access to users in aircraft cabin. At the same time, an increasing interest in the use of satellite communications for ATC (Air Traffic Control) has been motivated by the increasing load of traditional radio links mainly in the VHF band, and uses the extended capacities the satellite may provide. However, the development of a dedicated satellite system for ATS (Air Traffic Services) and AOC (Airline Operational Communications) seems to be a long-term perspective. The objective of the presented system design is to provide both passenger application traffic access (Internet, GSM) and a high-reliability channel for aeronautical applications using the same satellite links. Due to the constraints in capacity and radio bandwidth allocation, very high frequencies (above 20 GHz) are considered here. The corresponding design implications for the air interface are taken into account and access performances are derived using a dedicated simulation model. Some preliminary results are shown in this paper to demonstrate the technical feasibility of such system design with increased capacity. More details and the open issues will be studied in the future of this research work

Rate Optimal design of a Wireless Backhaul Network using TV White Space

The penetration of wireless broadband services in remote areas has primarily been limited due to the lack of economic incentives that service providers encounter in sparsely populated areas. Besides, wireless backhaul links like satellite and microwave are either expensive or require strict line of sight communication making them unattractive. TV white space channels with their desirable radio propagation characteristics can provide an excellent alternative for engineering backhaul networks in areas that lack abundant infrastructure. Specifically, TV white space channels can provide "free wireless backhaul pipes" to transport aggregated traffic from broadband sources to fiber access points. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of multi-hop wireless backhaul in the available white space channels by using noncontiguous Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (NC-OFDMA) transmissions between fixed backhaul towers. Specifically, we consider joint power control, scheduling and routing strategies to maximize the minimum rate across broadband towers in the network. Depending on the population density and traffic demands of the location under consideration, we discuss the suitable choice of cell size for the backhaul network. Using the example of available TV white space channels in Wichita, Kansas (a small city located in central USA), we provide illustrative numerical examples for designing such wireless backhaul network