ATSC 3.0, DVB-I, and TV 3.0 Services via 5G Broadcast—System Design and Reference Tools

Abstract

5G broadcast brings the promise of an independent or complementary linear TV experience, which can reuse existing terrestrial broadcast infrastructure to serve high definition (HD) or 4K live content to mobile devices, possibly independent of a mobile subscription. To benefit fully from this new capability, the design of a service layer is essential, including service discovery procedures and delivery protocols over IP multicast. This article examines the set of the different standardized service layers brought by the 3GPP, Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), and Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), which could target different regions, ecosystems, or regulatory requirements. To support media service providers, a full ecosystem of tools is now emerging, including the Reference Tools from the 5G Media Action Group (5G-MAG) and the GPAC open-source solution. We will introduce the consolidated work from 3GPP and 5G-MAG to make this vision a reality, in terms of standardization and development of reference tools. We will detail how DVB-I services over 5G broadcast can now be experimented with commodity tools and commercial devices. We will also identify the potential synergies with ATSC 3.0 A/3311and the possibilities for Brazil’s TV 3.0 project,2for which Real-time Object delivery over Unidirectional Transport (ROUTE)/dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) is the transport layer of choice and 5G broadcast is a candidate for the physical layer.