ITU-R BT.1877-2 PDF

This Recommendation defines error-correction, data framing, modulation and emission methods for the second generation of digital terrestrial television broadcasting transmission systems¹ (referred to, outside ITU-R, as a DVB-T2, ATSC 3.0, or DTMB-A system, respectively). Some of these systems have been developed such that they are compatible with the provisions of the GE06 Agreement. This Recommendation is intended for the digital terrestrial broadcasting transmission system, when high flexibility in the system configuration and broadcasting interactivity is of importance allowing for a wide-ranging trade-off between operation under minimal C/N levels or maximum transmission capacity².

The ITU Radiocommunication Assembly,

considering

a) that the digital terrestrial television systems for use in broadcasting systems have been developed in Recommendation ITU-R BT.1306, which are referred to as the current systems;

b) that digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DTTB) is being introduced in the VHF/UHF bands by some administrations from 1997 and second generation systems are currently being deployed by some administrations;

c) that it may be desirable to support the simultaneous transmission of a hierarchy of nested quality levels (including low definition television (LDTV), high definition television (HDTV), ultra-high definition television (UHDTV), standard definition TV (SDTV), and supplementary data within a single channel;

d) that many types of interference, including co-channel and adjacent channel, ignition noise, multipath and other signal distortions exist in the VHF/UHF bands;

e) that it is necessary that the frame synchronization be capable of robustness in channels subject to transmission errors;

f) that it is desirable that the frame structure be adapted to different bit rate channels;

g) that recent developments in the field of channel coding and modulation have produced new techniques with performances approaching the Shannon limit;

h) that these new digital techniques would offer better spectrum and/or power efficiency, in comparison to the current systems, whilst maintaining the possibility to be flexibly configured to cope with the specific broadcasting bandwidth and power resources;

i) that the recommended systems make use of such techniques and thus allow for a wide-ranging trade-off between operation under minimal C/N levels or maximum transmission capacity;

j) that the recommended systems would be capable to handle the variety of advanced audiovisual formats currently available and under definition, including immersive audio and ultra-high definition transmissions;

k) that the selection of a modulation option needs to be based on specific conditions such as spectrum resource, policy, coverage requirements, existing network structure, reception conditions, type of service required, cost to the consumer and broadcasters;

l) that advances in digital television transmission techniques are required to support content delivery to mobile devices;

m) that second generation systems may also support IMT-2020 data transport to supplement downlink capacity offload and provide flexibility and efficiencies for telecommunications platforms,

recommends

that administrations wishing to introduce the second generation DTTB systems may consider one of the families of error correction, framing, modulation and emission methods outlined within Annexes 1, 2 and 3, with the system selection guidelines provided in Annex 4, taking into account the further recommends below,

further recommends

that an evaluation of the recommended systems to facilitate system selection should be included in a future revision of this Recommendation, which should be based on criteria relevant to terrestrial digital broadcasting, and may consist of the following information:

a) a list of requirements and their relevance to the system parameters and technical features;

b) a list of system parameters of the recommended systems; and

c) a list of technical features of the recommended systems that concern aspects relevant to implementation and deployment.

¹ The second generation of digital terrestrial television broadcasting transmission systems in this Recommendation is meant as systems offering higher bit rate capacity per Hz and better power efficiency in comparison to the systems described in Recommendation ITU-R BT.1306, and there is no general requirement for backward compatibility with first-generation systems.

² For the first-generation systems information on planning parameters, protection ratios, etc. is already contained in relevant ITU-R Recommendations. For the second-generation systems, there is a need to study and include such information in the relevant ITU-R Recommendations.