Coverage gain estimation for multi-burst forward error correction in DVB-H networks

An approach for increasing the reception robustness of mobile broadcast streaming services has been developed for mobile broadcast systems based on time-slicing, such as DVB-H, employing multi-burst FEC at link or application layer. Multiple bursts will be encoded jointly in order to overcome burst errors caused by signal level variations. The approach shows high potential which can be characterized by a link margin gain due to reduced CNR requirements to cope with fast fading and shadowing. Nevertheless, the achieved gain depends on several system parameters (encoding period and coding rate), the physical environment (correlation of shadowing and multi-path fading) and on the mobility of the users (velocity and trajectory). The paper deals with the coverage estimation and network gain due to multi-burst FEC for vehicular users in a realistic urban scenario. Since the user behavior has to be considered the gain cannot be directly included into the link budget. Thus, a methodology has been developed in order to estimate the coverage of multi-burst FEC services based on dynamic system-level simulations. Results are shown by means of simulations in realistic scenarios and field measurements in urban environments.