Measurement of the DVB-T2 with 256QAM rotated constellation and 32K extended mode in relation to variable pilot patterns

Second generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting, in this paper represented by the DVB-T2 standard, has a more flexible approach of the system parameters by defining up to eight pilot patterns. Selection of the best pattern and related DVB-T2 system parameters can be adjusted in a real broadcasting network based on operator demands. This paper deals with exploring of the DVB-T2 system performance in different transmission channels and evaluates its dependence on the type of the pilot pattern used towards real DVB-T2 terrestrial network implementation. A fixed reception scenario of broadband multimedia system services is considered with HDTV video image quality for a very convenient 256QAM rotated constellation and 32K extended mode. Several terrestrial channel models are also respected, like reference Gaussian channel and standardized Ricean and Rayleigh fixed fading channels with 20 echo paths and variable delays. Dependences of the bit error rates before and after a highly efficient LDPC decoding and consequent modulation error on the carrier-to-noise ratio for different pilot patterns are the main results of our work. Finally, our experimental results are compared with the simulated and theoretical values from the ETSI standard to be sure about their validity.