Symbol error rate prediction for mobile receivers in urban single frequency networks

The future digital radio broadcasting systems i.e. DAB (digital audio broadcasting) will be based on single frequency networks (SFN). State-of-the-art planning tools use computer-aided prediction of the reception field strength, considering digitized terrain heights and land usage data. For urban areas, receiver near range models are available which consider statistical building density data and street width parameters. The application of a ray optical wave propagation model for urban single frequency networks allows a detailed analysis of the propagation channel. For each receiver location the signals of all transmitters (operating at 1.5 GHz) have to be taken into account to obtain the total field strength delay spectra (FDS). Depending on the time of arrival, the multipath signals contribute constructively or destructively to the resulting field strength. From the FDS the overall path loss and the intersymbol interference situation are derived. The channel symbol error rate (SER) can be calculated from the FDS by application of the so-called characteristic functions