Digital Television/Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB)

Abstract

Abstract This article introduces the Digital Television Terrestrial Broadcasting (DTTB) system and its evolution. The DTTB is a very important part of the Chinese TV broadcasting system. It works together with a digital satellite TV broadcasting system, a digital cable TV broadcasting system, and other related systems to provide TV services to consumers. Digital Television/Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB and its evolution system, DTMB‐A) is the key part of the Chinese TV broadcasting network. In China, two‐thirds of TV subscribers rely on terrestrial broadcasting. In emergencies, such as natural disasters, compared with cable and satellite, the terrestrial TV broadcasting network is the first component to be recovered. The main common technical feature of DTMB and DTMB‐A is the use of specially designed PN sequences on the guard intervals for channel synchronization and estimation. The PN sequences provide robust system synchronization and fast channel estimation in DTMB and DTMB‐A. At the same time, when the PN sequences are used as the training sequence of timing domain equalizer, they can provide the full performance of decision feedback equalizers. The absence of pilots (unlike other OFDM systems) provides a better spectral efficiency. In the following sections, we introduce DTMB and DTMB‐A, respectively.