Analysis of the impact of man-made noise on DVB-T and DVB-T2

Abstract

The crowded UHF band makes the VHF band an interesting complement for digital terrestrial broadcasting with additional benefits as lower free space loss and superior propagation conditions. However, the VHF band suffers significantly higher levels of man-made noise compared to the UHF band. Such man-made noise is unintentionally emitted by a large number of electronic devices as e.g. computers or switching effects in the mains. The variety of potential man-made noise sources also leads to a variety of man-made noise characteristics, ranging from white noise to narrow-band interferers or strong impulsive noise events. Almost all state-of-the-art terrestrial broadcast systems as e.g. DVB-T2 are based on the multi-carrier modulation OFDM, which is especially vulnerable towards impulsive noise. Network planners and receiver designers have to take the effects of man-made noise into account for the proper operation of digital VHF broadcast networks. Therefore, this paper shows the results for VHF man-made noise measurements and analysis the impact of man-made noise on DVB-T and DVB-T2 by means of system simulations. Furthermore, the document analyses the effect of selected receiver algorithms to counteract the effects of man-made noise.

Separation of Ambient Radio Noise and Radio Signals Received via Ionospheric Propagation

“…Notwithstanding their considerable effort, the obtained samples must be considered sparse when compared to the ambition of the ITU to provide guidance for all locations of the Earth and all frequency ranges. Several other interesting ambient noise measurement campaigns have been conducted elsewhere, such as [12,13], but often without bringing measurement methods and calibration in line with the ITU requirements, and without submitting results to the ITU. Absorbing ambient noise values from dissimilar methods and with incomplete documentation into the ITU models does not provide consistent results and is rejected.…”

“…The data from of the measurement during a solar X-ray flare [18] can be found here: DOI 10.4121/21885825. The data from the original polarimetric experiment [13] can be found here: DOI 10.4121/21888366. All computer code associated with the publication is available to readers.…”