The Simulation of the Interference Levels in Extended DVB-H SFN Areas

The maximum size of the single frequency network (SFN) of DVB-H depends on the guard interval (GI) and FFT mode. The distance limitation between the extreme transmitter sites is thus straightforward to calculate. Nevertheless, there might be need to extend the theoretical SFN areas e.g. due to the lack of frequencies. This paper describes a simulation method for obtaining information about the effect of parameter settings on the error levels caused by the over-sized DVB-H SFN area. The functionality of the method was tested by programming a simulator and analysing the variations of carrier per interference distribution. The results show that the limits can be exceeded e.g. by selecting the antenna height in optimal way and accepting certain increase of the error level that is called SFN error rate (SER) in this analysis.