Mobile Television Business & Technology Platforms, DVB-H, Operator Roles

Mobile TelevisionBusiness & Technology Platforms,

DVB-H, Operator Roles

T-109.4300 Network Services Business Models

15.2.2006

Eino Kivisaari

Why mobile TV?

”Because it is there…”

People watch TV a lot…

…It has become technically possible to

deliver the experience of TV watching

in mobile terminals…

So, why not..?

Why mobile TV? (Contd.)

Terminal manufacturers are looking for new, significant factors of differentiation

Advanced (new) features with real benefits are a means to avoid terminal price decline

Mobile operators are looking for new succesful applications as well

Mobile TV is a new channel for content providers to re-sell their existing content

Technical Challenges

1) Mobile Reception An antenna inside a terminal, a terminal inside a building.. Terminals are moving fast (inside cars, trains..) ..Compared to a stationary roof-top antenna (DVB-T)

2) Battery Consumption Receiver always on in DVB-T Constant rendering of a 4-5 Mbps stream (DVB-T, MPEG2)

Lot of processing power needed

Network CapacityDVB-T: ~24 Mbps (64QAM) 3-6 Mbps / TV channel

Appr. 5 channels per multiplex

DVB-H: 5-11 Mbps (QPSK…16QAM) 250-500 kbps / TV channel

Up to tens of channels

Raw DVB-H bandwidth depends on the Modulation used(QPSK or 16QAM), Guard Interval, and Code Rate Guard Interval: ”air-clearout-time” between OFDM symbols Code Rate: ratio of payload and error correction data

New in DVB-HTime Slicing

For power consumption Terminal RF receiver is off 90% of the time Time slicing makes smooth handover possible

4K Subcarrier Mode 2K: Tolerates high speed terminal movement, but

only small cell size ( costly network) 8K: Big cell diameter (up to 80 km), but cannot

handle terminals moving too fast 4K: Good compromise between 2K and 8K

IPDC Protocol Stack

Source: http://www.tml.hut.fi/~lstaffan/MScThesisStaffans.pdf

Referenced 14.2.2006

RTP

AV stream(H.263, H.264,AAC, etc.)

IPDC Encapsulation

Source: http://www.tml.hut.fi/~lstaffan/MScThesisStaffans.pdf

Referenced 14.2.2006

eg. H.263 & AAC

DVB Transport Stream, Protocol Data Units (PDUs)

Example IPDC Architecture

StreamEncoder

Mobile TVManagement

Server

DVB Modulator

IP / MPEEncapsulator

Mobile TVBilling & Charging

Multicast IP Network

DVB-HTerminal

DVB-H Transmitter

GSM

StreamEncoder

StreamEncoder

(IPDC = Internet Protocol DataCasting)

Service Announcement

ESG = Electronic Service Guide

ESG in DVB-H mobile television is a program guide + a lot of technical information for the terminal

ESG is needed for opening a program stream: what channel’s content is coming from what IP multicast address / port, using which codec, etc…

ESG also supports the paid services

Conditional Access

Paid services for mobile TV? Conditional Access (CA) methods needed

In terrestrial TV there are many many options… Open Interface, Nagravision, Conax, etc...

In DVB-H systems, IPSec and OMA DRM are used No security by obscurity Standard-based solutions No proprietary algorithms / associated fees as in the

terrestrial TV case

Single-Frequency Networks

Source: http://www.dvb-h-online.org/PDF/DigiTAG-DVB-H-Handbook.pdf Referenced 8.2.2006

Amount of transmitter stations: Cellular >> DVB-H >> Terrestrial Digital TV

Mobile TV Operator RolesNetwork Operator

Operates the DVB-H network Modulators, Transmitters, Repeaters… Owns & operates the multicast (intra) network IP / MPE encapsulators Owner of the frequency

Datacast Operator Orchestrates the mobile TV technical platform between

content providers (TV channels), service operators (cellular operators), datacast operator and DVB-H network operator

Generates ESG (which is then filecasted to terminals)

Operator Roles (Contd.)

Content Provider Eg. a TV Channel (such as BBC, YLE, MTV3 or Nelonen) Owner (or aggregator) of the content Produces a digital content stream by encoding (an existing)

the audio/video signal for use in mobile TV

Service Operator Eg. a mobile cellular operator ”Owns” the end-user Takes care of mobile TV service marketing & branding,

pricing, end-user support, billing & charging

Service Operator 3

Operator Roles in Providing(Paid) Mobile TV Services

NetworkOperator

DatacastOperator

Service Operator 1

Content Provider

Mobile TVTerminal

Content Streambroadcast over DVB-H

GPRS

Information aboutpurchasable services

Purchase

requests

Digital

Rights

Generates ESG

Operates a contentstream encoder

Content Provider

Content Provider

Content Provider

Service Operator 2

Competing Standards

DVB-H UHF (470-750 MHz) Up to 11 Mbps

DAB VHF ~ 1 Mbps

DMB VHF ~ 1 Mbps

ISBD-T Only in Japan ~ 1,5 Mbps

MediaFLO UHF, VHF Up to 11 Mbps Qualcomm (proprietary)

Recent Developments

Nokia Open Air Interface 1.0 (OAI 1.0)http://www.mobiletv.nokia.com/solutions/openair/

Contains specifications for ESG functionality, service protection and purchase etc…

Aimed to speed up DVB-H terminal availability from various manufacturers, to make the overall DVB-H market bigger

Sony Ericsson and Nokia collaborating for DVB-H interoperabilityhttp://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=pc3_1_1&zone=pc&lm=pc3_1&prid=4702

Conclusions Mobile TV is finally coming

Commercial launches 2006/07…? Commercial success… remains still

in the end-users’ hands

An important point: Mobile terminal is the first device to include both a

Broadcast Receiver (TV & Radio Channels) and an Internet Connection (GPRS) & Browser

What business consequences can this have?A wave of new interactive services? Mobile TV shops?

Purchase of media clips? Pay-per-view programs? Mobile TV as a ”must-have” terminal feature by 2009…?