Satellite digital multimedia broadcasting - deployment and coverage investigation with radio network planning tool

Several technologies for providing mobile broadcast services are currently emerging. Besides terrestrial-only architectures as DVB-H, the hybrid satellite & terrestrial system approach of satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (S-DMB) offers advantages in terms of coverage and cost efficiency. In order to assess the S-DMB radio coverage in different environments an off-the-shelf planning tool for terrestrial radio networks has been adapted to consider satellite transmitters and further extended according to the current specification of the S-DMB system based on the W-CDMA air interface. This S-DMB radio planning tool allows the investigation of the S-DMB; performance in terms of coverage, E-b/N-t, and system margin for pure satellite as well as hybrid satellite and terrestrial repeater configurations within various environments (rural, urban and indoor). Such investigations are used to trade the open radio parameters of the S-DMB system architecture and to gain knowledge concerning the required density of the terrestrial repeaters in order to provide sufficient coverage in urban and indoor environments. Copyright (C) 2006 AEIT.