Implementing a DVB-T/H Receiver on a Software-Defined Radio Platform

Abstract

Digital multimedia broadcasting is available in more and more countries with various forms. One of the most successful forms is Digital Video Broadcasting for Terrestrial (DVB-T), which has been deployed in most countries of the world for years. In order to bring the digital multimedia broadcasting services to battery-powered handheld receivers in a mobile environment, Digital Video Broadcasting for Handheld (DVB-H) has been formally adopted by ETSI. More advanced and complex digital multimedia broadcasting systems are under development, for example, the next generation of DVB-T, a.k.a. DVB-T2. Current commercial DVB-T/H receivers are usually built upon dedicated application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). However, ASICs are not flexible for incoming evolved standards and less overall-area efficient since they cannot be efficiently reused and shared among different radio standards, when we integrate a DVB-T/H receiver into a mobile phone. This paper presents an example implementation of a DVB-T/H receiver on the prototype of Infineon Technologies' Software-Defined Radio (SDR) platform called MuSIC (Multiple SIMD Cores), which is a DSP-centered and accelerator-assisted architecture and aims at battery-powered mass-market handheld terminals.