Field Evaluation of Transmit Diversity Code Filter Sets in ATSC 3.0 Single Frequency Networks

Abstract

Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0, a recently developed terrestrial broadcasting standard, supports a Single Frequency Network (SFN), which extends service coverage and enhances received field strength without additional frequency resources. In SFN, multiple transmitters emit identical ATSC 3.0 broadcasting signals, which may cause constructive or destructive interference on a receiver side. The worst situation occurs when two signals from different transmitters are received with the opposite phase and similar power within a sample time, causing the cancellation of the received signal. In order to prevent such signal cancellation, ATSC 3.0 adopted transmitter diversity code filter sets (TDCFS), which is a frequency domain pre-distortion scheme to minimize cross-correlation among multiple transmitter signals in SFN. This paper sets up an ATSC 3.0 SFN consisting of two transmitter sites, transmitting high definition (HD) for mobile service and 4K ultra high definition (UHD) for fixed service. Layered division multiplexing (LDM) and time division multiplexing (TDM) are used to simulcast the two services with different robustness in the same radio frequency (RF) channel. Then, performance is evaluated using a threshold of visibility (ToV) and a successful reception rate. The time and frequency channel responses are changed at the same reception area when TDCFS is applied so the results show that reception performance is improved in the worst situation in SFN.