DVB-T2 MISO/SISO receiver performance limits in Single Frequency Networks: Practical results

In DVB-T2 broadcast networks, the Single Frequency Network (SFN) mode is an attractive alternative to the well-known Multiple Frequency Network (MFN) mode. SFN networks provide augmented spectrum efficiency as well as a quality of service improvement due to the more homogeneous distribution of the received signal strength. Nevertheless, in practice, some areas will also show a degradation caused by long SFN echoes. In order to improve the performance under harsh SFN receiving conditions, the DVB-T2 standard incorporates a Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) antenna diversity mechanism. The aim of this paper is to analyze the practical performance of DVB-T2 receivers under realistic SFN channel conditions. A software based DVB-T2 receiver implementation is used as a reference, providing performance results for both SISO and MISO configurations in a set of proposed SFN scenarios.