Local Adapter Selecting PLPs for ATSC 3.0 Bandwidth Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current regional content broadcasting solutions for ATSC 3.0 standard are costly due to bandwidth inefficiencies, particularly when duplicating national common content and filling regional PLPs with padding packets, which is not feasible for broadcasters without rights to broadcast specific regional content.
Innovation Solution
A local adapter is used to receive and process STL streams, selecting specific Physical Layer Pipes (PLPs) from input streams to generate a new STL stream with updated preamble and timing packets, allowing for PLP aggregation rather than replacement, thereby optimizing bandwidth usage and enabling regional content broadcasting without unnecessary content duplication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If national common content is duplicated in each STL stream for different regions, then regional content broadcasting is enabled, but bandwidth costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The broadcast stream is segmented into separate PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes) for national common content and regional specific content. The local adapter then selectively combines only the necessary PLPs for each region, avoiding duplication of national content across all regional streams while maintaining regional broadcasting capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple PLPs carrying different content (national common content and regional specific content) are merged at the local adapter to create a unified STL stream for each region. This combining approach allows efficient bandwidth usage by aggregating necessary components rather than duplicating entire streams.
2Reliability
If PLPs are replaced with padding packets for regions without specific content, then broadcast coverage is maintained, but bandwidth efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Each local adapter is configured with specific selection criteria based on its serving region. The adapter selects and combines PLPs according to the actual content needs of its local region, creating a tailored STL stream that avoids unnecessary padding packets and optimizes bandwidth for that specific geographic area.
Solution Approach 2:
The local adapter autonomously determines which PLPs to select and combine based on region-specific content requirements. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for centralized padding strategies, allowing each adapter to optimize its output stream according to local needs without wasting bandwidth on unnecessary content.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple STL streams are generated for different regions, then regional content can be broadcast, but device complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The local adapter acts as an intermediary device between the central broadcast gateway and the transmitter site. It receives multiple PLPs from the gateway, selectively combines them according to region-specific requirements, and outputs a single optimized STL stream. This intermediary function simplifies the overall system architecture by centralizing the selection and combination logic at the local adapter level.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for generating an STL stream includes, in a local adapter serving a transmitter site in a broadcast network includes: receiving a first STL stream, generated by a broadcast gateway and having at least one frame including: a preamble packet, a timing packet, and at least one BB packet carrying at least one PLP; selecting at least one PLP carried by the BB packets, the BB packet(s) carrying the selected PLPs being called selected BB packet(s); generating an output STL stream including at least one frame having at least: a preamble packet, obtained from the preamble packet of the first STL stream, a timing packet, obtained from the timing packet of the first STL stream, and BB packets corresponding to the selected BB packets of the first STL stream. The frames of the first STL stream and the output STL stream have the same duration.