Broadcast Frame Zoning for Mixed-Robustness Data Streams
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Solution Overview
Problem
Unidirectional broadcast systems, such as DVB-T2, face limitations in dynamically adapting to users' instantaneous reception conditions due to a single efficiency mode for all users, leading to suboptimal trade-offs between system capacity and robustness.
Innovation Solution
The method involves dividing a data frame into multiple physical layer zones with varying efficiency and robustness characteristics, allowing each zone to have distinct subcarrier numbers, guard periods, and pilot signal distributions, and allocating signaling information to guide receivers in selecting appropriate zones based on their conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a single physical layer configuration is used for all users in broadcast systems, then system complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but adaptability to different users' reception conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The broadcast frame is segmented into multiple physical layer zones, each with distinct macro-configuration characteristics (FFT size, guard interval, pilot pattern). This allows different zones to be optimized for different reception conditions while maintaining a unified frame structure, thus improving adaptability without significantly increasing system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Different physical layer zones are assigned different macro-configuration characteristics tailored to specific reception conditions. For example, zones with better channel conditions can use larger FFT sizes for higher capacity, while zones with poorer conditions use smaller FFT sizes for better robustness. This local optimization resolves the contradiction between uniformity and adaptability.
2Productivity
If adaptive modulation and coding is employed to optimize system capacity, then efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases due to the need for reverse link communication
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of having the system adapt to users through reverse link feedback (traditional adaptive modulation and coding), this invention inverts the approach by allowing users to select from multiple pre-configured physical layer zones within the same broadcast frame. This achieves adaptability without requiring reverse link communication, thus maintaining efficiency while reducing device complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple physical layer configurations are provided for different users, then adaptability is improved, but system complexity and loss of information increase due to extensive signaling requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The physical layer zone signaling structure is designed to be universal, where a single set of signaling messages describes multiple zones with different macro-configuration characteristics. This multi-functional signaling approach allows the system to convey information about multiple configurations efficiently, improving adaptability while minimizing the loss of information through compact signaling.
4Device complexity
If uniform macro-configuration characteristics are used across all symbols, then system complexity is reduced, but productivity decreases due to inability to optimize for different reception conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces dynamic macro-configuration characteristics by allowing different physical layer zones within the same frame to have different configurations. This dynamic approach enables optimization for varying reception conditions (improving productivity) while maintaining relatively simple receiver architecture (managing device complexity) through standardized zone selection and switching mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of transmitting data comprising a plurality of data streams in a broadcasting system is provided. The method includes dividing a frame into a plurality of physical layer zones, allocating the plurality of data streams to the plurality of physical layer zones, allocating signaling information associated with the plurality of physical layers to at least one of the plurality of physical layer regions, and transmitting the frame to which the signaling information is allocated.