J-ORTIGIA: S-band Satellite Broadcasting Experimentation Campaign through NICT ETS-VIII satellite

- Competitiveness & Growth
Status: Ongoing
Last updated: 2010-11-18 00:00:00
Activity Code:

Objectives

The key objectives of the J-ORTIGIA project are to:

Evolve the receiver setup developed in the ORTIGIA (19849/06/NL/US) framework in terms of performance, RF tuning, and alignment with the DVB-SH standard;
Develop and/or procure measurement equipments essential to improving the accuracy of results coming out from on-field trials;
Use the developed technologies for testing reception in realistic scenarios, both for handheld and vehicular use cases;
Deploy a representative Complementary Ground Component capable to host both measurement sessions and pilot projects with alpha-users;
Perform on-field trials in Japan using the ETS-VIII satellite and a receiver representative of the handheld use case.
Perform on-field trials using the S-band link of W2A and a receiver representative of the vehicular use case.

To achieve the key milestone of the first part of the project, the J-ORTIGIA project made use of the S-band payload of the ETS-VIII Japanese satellite, and of associated uplink facilities provided by NICT (National Institute of Information and Communication Technology).

The purpose of experiments focuses on the test and validation of the reception of satellite signals with terminal antenna typical for vehicular devices.

Challenges

The critical issues are listed as follows:

Receiver Terminal (Handheld and Vehicular): assembly of a mock-up able to emulate handheld reception in Phase 2; stronger integration of a vehicular terminal in Phase 3.
SH Profile selection (SH-B and SH-A): the priority of the project has been fixed in the SH-B architecture, but comparisons have been done between the two modes.
Modulator Development for the support of the Japanese trials: this requires the integration of FHG modulators in the UBS terrestrial repeater architecture.
Malfunctioning of equipments (Modulators, Demodulators, and Terrestrial Repeaters): adequate backup policy in terms of equipment is applied.
On-Field Sessions: for the on-field sessions constraints on the availability of the ETS-VIII satellite firstly and the W2A satellite secondly and the related frequency coordination have been managed.
License authorisations: all trials need a temporary license before starting emissions from terrestrial repeaters. This requires coordination with local regulatory authorities and relative long time processes before issuing the authorisations.
UMTS interference: the effects caused by and on adjacent systems have been assessed and reduced through the use of filters at Tx and Rx side.
Interoperability of the equipments: discovered issues related to different implementations of the DVB-SH standard. Interoperability Group active since October 2009. Contributions to DVB-SH Implementation Guidelines v2.

Benefits

The field trials have helped to evaluate the DVB-SH system in a situation where the Satellite was, for the first time, contributing the to the Complementary Ground Component coverage in a significant manner, and to compare the performances of different profiles in different scenarios with the following conclusions:

High throughput configurations show full service availability in hybrid reception,
Slight advantage of SH-B vs SH-A profiles in satellite reception,
Advantage of Class-2 vs Class-1 in terms of service availability,
Code Combining gain visible in suburban and rural areas,
Proved antenna diversity gain in challenging Rx scenarios.

Thanks to the consolidated role of the Satellite in the System, the Operator has reinforced the vision of a multi-layered architecture.

Satellite coverage represents an essential layer of the network:
- Vehicular centric services can be provided with satellite only coverage,
- Japanese trials has demonstrated that the direct reception from satellite to handheld is possible.
High Power repeaters installed in broadcaster towers represents the second layer of the network:
- Mutual interference with UMTS is marginal,
- Few transmitters can complement the satellite signal in urban scenario.
Low Power repeaters co-installed with UMTS base stations acts as third layer of the network:
- Japanese Validation Trials (executed in Barcelona) show full availability of service in dense urban scenarios.
Although not assessed in this project, local Gap-Fillers can represent a further layer of the network particularly for indoor coverage where the trials have proved that the reception is particularly challenging:
- Commercial centres, Airports, In-home.

Features

The architecture of the target system.

click for larger image

Plan

In order to simplify the achievement of all targets the project has been split in three Phases:

Phase-1: including a series of preliminary analysis in the network planning, the terrestrial repeater procurement and the hardware equipment (modulator and demodulator) updating;
Phase-2: integration of the handheld mock-up and vehicular terminals; execution of a validation session; execution of Japanese trials with ETS-VIII satellite;
Phase-3: entirely dedicated to DVB-SH equipments, including specific tasks to promote the Interoperability of the equipments from different vendors. A series of hybrid trials have been performed using the deployed Pilot Terrestrial Network and the W2A satellite.

J-ORTIGIA had a total duration of 30 months, starting from April, 1st 2008. The work carried out was organized into a work package series that grouped activities on the basis of their type and also considering the time sequence of their execution.

The activities of the J-ORTIGIA project converge in the following areas of development:

Demodulator/Terminal
- UL-FEC implementation;
- Receivers:
  - Step 1: Receiver supporting DVB-SH technology based on the ESDR waveform;
  - Step 2: Full DVB-SH-A/B support using the designd from the activity ARTES 3 “S-band receiver Chipset”;
- S-band Rx antenna for vehicular scenario;
Modulator/Terrestrial Repeater
- Design and supply of High Power (up to 200W) Terrestrial Repeaters operating in the 2.5GHz and 2.2GHz bands;
- Design and supply of Low Power (up to 50W) Terrestrial Repeaters operating in the 2.5GHz and 2.2GHz bands;
Network Planning
- Verification and comparison of different network topologies (e.g. high power repeater vs low/medium power repeaters);
- The terrestrial networks have been also used for live demonstrations of DVB-SH system as at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2009 and 2010;
Interoperability of equipments
- Pre-commercial broadcast head-end with equipments coming from different vendors;
- Open to two different receiver makers.