DVB-NGH (Next Generation Handheld) - Base Profile

* The DVB-NGH specifications were approved by the DVB Steering Board in 2012. Unforeseen administrative delays and editorial complications meant that they were not finally published as ETSI standards until 2022. While the DVB-NGH solution has not been deployed in the market in its own right, aspects of the specifications are referenced in other DVB solutions.

Introduction

The present document is structured as follows:

• it gives a general description of the transmission system for digital terrestrial and hybrid broadcasting to handheld terminals;
• • it specifies the digitally modulated signal in order to allow compatibility between pieces of equipment developed by different manufacturers. This is achieved by describing in detail the signal processing at the modulator side, while the processing at the receiver side is left open to different implementation solutions. However, it is necessary in this text to refer to certain aspects of reception.

The multi-part deliverable consists of four parts each covering a different structure of the transmitter network:

• Base Profile (the present document): Covers sheer terrestrial transmission with single and multi-aerial structures that require only a single aerial and tuner on the receiver side.
• MIMO Profile (ETSI EN 303 105-2 [i.1]): Covers sheer terrestrial transmission with multi-aerial structures on both ends. Terminals suitable for this profile need to employ two tuners as well.
• Hybrid Profile (ETSI EN 303 105-3 [i.2]): Covers a combination of terrestrial and satellite transmissions that requires only a single tuner on receiver side.
• Hybrid MIMO Profile ((ETSI EN 303 105-4 [i.3]): Covers a combination of terrestrial and satellite transmission requiring a double aerial and tuner set-up on receiver side. Once again, a part of the configurations can be handled by MIMO profile [i.1] receivers, other configurations require a special hybrid MIMO [i.3] receiver. The present document describes the base profile in full detail. For the MIMO [i.1] and hybrid profiles [i.2] and [i.3] only the differences between those and the base profile are described, i.e. additional functional blocks and parameter settings and those that are permitted in the MIMO [i.1] or hybrid profile [i.2]. The hybrid MIMO profile [i.3] is not formulated solely as a list of differences to the other three profiles. Instead it defines how previously-described elements are to be combined to provide hybrid MIMO [i.3] transmission, as well as introducing profile-specific information. Functional blocks and settings that are the same as in the base profile are not described again, but can be derived from the base profile reflected by the present document.

Scope

The present document describes the next generation transmission system for digital terrestrial and hybrid (combination of terrestrial with satellite transmissions) broadcasting to handheld terminals. It specifies the entire physical layer part from the input streams to the transmitted signal. This transmission system is intended for carrying Transport Streams or generic data streams feeding linear and non-linear applications like television, radio and data services. DVB-NGH terminals might also process DVB-T2-lite signals.