Digital outside-broadcasting-link using OFDM modulation scheme

A study on digital broadcasting systems has been conducted for the multimedia era. Regarding program production, a digital outside-broadcasting-link (OBL), in particular, from mobile source is required to gather digital video and audio sources in severe multipath environments. The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme is robust under multipath fading conditions. A digital OFDM modem for OBL in the 800 MHz band has been developed to enable stable transmission of digital sources from moving vehicles. In the experimental OFDM-OBL, the compressed digital video and audio data are distributed to 572 carriers in the 9 MHz bandwidth, using differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) modulation for each carrier. In computer simulation and indoor/outdoor experiments, it is confirmed that digital OFDM-OBL can stably transmit signals, even under severe multipath fading conditions, while pictures transmitted with conventional FM-OBL are seriously degraded. This paper describes the features of the OFDM modem for the digital OBL which transmits program sources from moving vehicles, and also discusses aspects of gathering digital program sources