Digital Audio Broadcasting

Kadri Balli Abstract

Since the publication of the Digital Audio Broadcasting Terrestrial standard (DAB-T) in 1994, the broadcasters world has discovered a new and efficient method to modulate their signals; t e h Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (COFDM). This full digital modulation technique allows to supply, to the mobile and the portable receivers, an interference free digital signal over a terrestrial radio frequency channel. Broadcasters to setup such kind of networks, need not only to implement COFDM modulators but also to manage their primary distribution networks in order to synchronize the system both in the frequency and time domains. This article presents An Introduction to Digital Audio Broadcasting with System Overview, COFDM and the Adaptation of COFDM for DAB. shifted and delayed signals. This and many other reasons made it necessary to develop new radio systems based on digital technology with the following requirements: safe and distortion free reception with stationary, portable and mobile receivers sound quality comparable with CD increased frequency efficiency due to single frequency networks (SFN) ready for Multimedia applications multi-path reception shall not cause any problems it has to be possible to transmit a signal that contains several programs

1. Introduction and System Overview

1.1 Introduction When FM was established in the middle of the last century it was specified for reception with stationary receivers equipped with directional antennas mounted in a height of approximately 10 meters. Nowadays this specification is no longer up-to-date since more than 85% of the radio receivers are portable or mobile systems connected to simple non-directional antennas. Also the expectations in the quality of the received signal have changed. Certainly the introduction of Stereo in the end of the 1960's brought a significant improvement of sound quality, but in the age of noiseless sound from media like compact disc, mini disc and digital Audio tape many radio listeners are no longer satisfied with the sound quality provided by FM. Especially for mobile reception, a decreased listening quality is experienced from noise and hissing which is caused by multi-path reception. In addition the FM frequency bands get more and more crowded caused by the growing number of radio stations all over the world. Especially because transmitters with overlapping coverage areas have to be operated on different frequencies to avoid reception problems caused by phase 33

The broadcasting system DAB, developed by the EUREKA 147 project and fully standardized by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is a system that totally fulfils the requirements above and therefore is recommended by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). (Standards: ETS 300 401; ITU-R Rec. 774 789 )

1.2 System Overview 1.2.1 Description of the DAB system The DAB System is a transparent digital transmission channel that allows to transport any information that can be expressed in bits and bytes to stationary, portable and mobile receivers. The capacity of this transmission channel can be split into a number of sub-channels which can carry independent Audio or data programs with different data rates and protection levels. For the transmission of these digital programs the innovative modulation technology Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (COFDM) is used. To maintain an efficient use of the provided transmission channel it was decided to use a data compression system according to ISO-MPEG 11172-3 (MPEG 1-Layer II) and ISO-MPEG 13818-3 (MPEG 2- Layer II).

1.2.2 The basic DAB signal chain: The Basic DAB Signal Chain is shown in figure: 1.1. A basic DAB signal chain can be separated into the following three sides:

The Service Provider Side, where the basic audio encoding is done or data signals are inserted The Ensemble Provider Side, where the data streams provided by various service

providers are put together in an ensemble multiplexer to a DAB Ensemble. The Transmitter Network Provider Side, where the COFDM Encoding, modulation and terrestrial transmission is done.

Figure 1.1

The Basic DAB Signal Chain and Data Inserters can be linked by the WG1/WG2 Bus. If the Ensemble Multiplexer is at the same location as the Audio Encoders, the WG1/WG2 Signal can be connected directly to the Ensemble Multiplexer. Otherwise the Service Transport Interface (STI) has to be used to transport the data stream from the service provider side to the Ensemble Multiplexer. The STI Interface has been defined in the ETSI Standard ETS 300 797 and can be transported on various digital channels (e.g. G704).

1.2.2.1 Service Provider Side (Studio) To insert an audio or data channel into a DAB signal, an Audio Encoder / Data Inserter is needed. Usually this equipment is located at the studio and compresses the incoming Audio signal according to the selected method (ISO-MPEG Layer II) and selected data rate (between 32 to 384 kBit/s). Depending on the type of the used audio encoder Program Associated Data (PAD) and an independent data stream can be added. If more than one audio program is produced at a studio side, then the needed number of Audio Encoders

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1.2.2.2 Ensemble Provider Side (Ensemble Multiplexer) The DAB ensemble contains a number of subchannels in various sizes defined by the Ensemble Provider. Each of those sub channels can carry exactly one Audio or Data program. In the Ensemble Multiplexer the data streams received from the different service providers are collected and the programs for the DAB ensemble are selected from these data streams. For the transportation of the DAB Ensemble from the Ensemble Multiplexer to the various transmission sites in the network, the ETI - Signal (ETI ... Ensemble Transport Interface) was defined in the standard ETS 300 799. Depending on the setting of the Multiplexer, the ETI signal is provided according to G-703 or G-704 with a fixed data rate of 2.048 Mbit/s. 1.2.2.3 Transmission Network The transmission network consists of all transmission sites that receive their ETI input signal from one Ensemble Multiplexer. At each transmission site the COFDM signal is processed from the incoming ETI signal and radiated either in the VHF Band III (176 MHz - 240 MHz) or the L-

Band (1452 MHz -1492 MHz).

1.2.3 Comparison of a DAB Transmission Network with a Standard FM Transmission Network In a standard FM transmission network each Audio program has to be distributed via a separate transmission network and is shown in figure: 1.2. Therefore, it is very difficult for local and regional program providers to reach a high coverage. With DAB it is now possible to transmit several programs via the same transmission network. This innovative concept allows local and regional program providers for the first time to share the costs of a transmission network and to combine their coverage areas. On the other hand national or state owned program providers that operate a DAB Network can rent a capacity in their DAB Ensembles to any program provider without the need to build up a separate transmission network as in FM.

Figure 1.2

Actual FM Networks

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2. COFDM - the modulation technology for DAB

This second section is about Digital Audio Broadcasting mainly focused on the modulation technology "Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex" - COFDM. To understand why COFDM was chosen for DAB, it is necessary to get familiar with the effects that cause distortions and decrease the quality of a signal distributed via terrestrial transmis sion networks. Therefore, a description of these effects is the content of the following sub-section. 2.1 Multi path reception and Doppler effect: Usually the signal received with the antenna of a Radio or TV Receiver is not the pure signal provided by the chosen transmission site. Instead it is a mixture of the signal received directly from

the transmitter and signals reflected by the surrounding buildings, mountains etc. (Figure 2.1). Compared to the directly received signal the reflected signals (echoes) are delayed in time and have usually a different phasing. For analogue terrestrial TV transmission this causes the ghosting" effect. For digital transmission technologies using single carrier systems, theInter-Symbol-Interference (ISI) can be the result of multi path reception. Due to the overlay of reflected signals and directly received signals the amplitude of the total signal at the reception point is changing. Under critical circumstances a total signal loss (frequency selective fading) is possible. For mobile applications distortions caused by multi path reception are intensified, since the receiving conditions are continuously changing.

Figure 2.1 An additional source of distortions is the Doppler effect, which occurs f r all relative movements o between the transmitter and receiver. If the receiver is moving towards the transmitter the receiving frequency increases and if the receiver is moving away from the transmitter the receiving frequency decreases according to the f ollowing formulas:

Multipath Reception

v f received = f transmitte * 1 rel d c

2.2 OFDM - basics Instead of the former digital modulation technologies OFDM is a multicarrier system. This means that instead of a single carrier with a high frequency bandwidth, many carriers with a small frequency bandwidth are used to transport the 44

f received = f transmitte f Doppler d

digital data stream. The carriers in the OFDM signal are called subcarriers. The operation of several modulators in parallel complies exactly the algorithm of the Inverse Discrete Fourier Transformation. (figure:2.2 ) Each subcarrier is modulated according to the same digital modulation method. This means that all subcarriers are either QPSK, 16 QAM or 64 QAM modulated. For DAB D-QPSK (Differential -

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) was chosen. The combination of all modulated sub carriers is called symbol. The number of bits that can be transported in one OFDM - Symbol depends on the number of subcarriers and the selected modulation method.

Figure 2.2 Examples for QPSK, 64 QAM and 16 QAM modulated signals: Example 1: 100 subcarriers per Symbol, each carrier is QPSK modulated QPSK Modulation (= 4 QAM) Logd(4)=2 bits per carrier 100 subcarriers*2 bits 200 bits per symbol Example 2: 500 subcarriers per Symbol, each Carrier is 64 QAM modulated 64 -QAM Modulation Logd(64) 6 bits per carrier 500 carriers * 6 bits per carrier 3000 bits per symbol The time that the symbol is valid, is called symbol duration. During the symbol duration the bit combination carried by each subcarrier is not changed. The symbol duration defines the number of symbols that can be broadcasted per second and therefore the net bitrate of the OFDM Signal.

The Principle of OFDM

Example 3: 1000 subcarriers per symbol, each sub carrier 16 QAM Modulated symbol duration 1 ms 16 QAM Modulation Logd(16) 4 bits per carrier 1000 carriers* 4 bits per carrier 4000 bits per carrier Symbol duration 1 ms 1000 Symbols per second 1000 Symbols per second 4000 bits*1000 symbols /s = 4 Mbit/s The frequency bandwidth of the complete OFDM signal is defined by the sum of the frequency bandwidth of each subcarrier. The selection of the frequencies for the subcarriers can not be freely defined. To maintain a distortion free signal retrieval i the receiver, the frequencies of the n subcarriers have to be orthogonal. This means that the frequency spacing between the carriers is the inverse of the symbol duration. The frequency spectrum of the subcarriers overlap but due to the 44

digital modulation of the subcarriers the demodulation is possible. (See figure 2.3). Since the reflected signal can arrive delayed to the directly received signal, it is necessary to insert a delay time between the symbols. This delay time is called guard interval and is a very important parameter for single frequency operation. The complete symbol duration is therefore the sum of the useful symbol duration plus the duration of the guard interval. Since no information can be broadcasted during the guard interval the total transmission capacity is reduced, but the protection against distortions caused by multi path reception is increased. 2.3 The difference between OFDM and COFDM COFDM is a variation of the OFDM very suitable for mobile applications since an additional protection against frequency selective fading is introduced. In OFDM usually the bits carried by

the subcarriers are assigned to the subcarriers in the way they are received from the signals source. Therefore adjacent bits in the incoming serial bit stream are assigned to adjacent carriers in the OFDM. If a number of adjacent subcarriers are distorted by frequency selective fading, then the adjacent bits in the bit stream are distorted and the receiver is not able to compensate the errors by Forward Error Correction (FEC). ln COFDM the bits of the incoming bit stream are assigned to the carriers of the OFDM signal by a defined code. Therefore, Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex. In the receiver the bit stream is brought to the correct order again by decoding with the same code. A distortion of adjacent carriers in the COFDM signal causes distortions of non adjacent bits in the bit stream which can be usually corrected in the receiver by Forward Error Correction. (See figure2.4).

Figure 2.3 Orthogonal Carrier Frequency Spacing Figure 2.4 OFDM and COFDM

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3. The Adaptation of COFDM for DAB

This third section is mainly focused on the modulation technology, "Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex" - COFDM which was adapted for DAB.

robust signal possible with COFDM. (See figure 3.1). In the transmission channel from the DAB transmitter to the receiver, noise is added to the transmitted signal. This means that the phase and the amplitude of each subcarrier is influenced. The more noise is added the more the received constellation diagram differs from the constellation diagram of the transmitted signal. The dashed circle in figure 3.1 indicates the maximum deviation caused by noise so that the receiver is still able to reproduce the correct data stream. In QPSK (and QAM) each possible bit combination of the data stream transported via a subcarrier is assigned to a point in the constellation diagram. In QPSK the amplitude of the carrier is always the same but for each bit combination the carrier has a different phase.

3.1 COFDM Subcarrier modulation used for DAB As explained in section two a COFDM signal consists of a defined number of orthogonal subcarriers that can be either QPSK, 16-QAM or 64-QAM modulated. Since it was the target of the Eureka 147 project to establish a system that works even with poor signal to noise ratios, it was decided to use D-QPSK ( Differential QPSK). On one hand, this decision limited the number of bits that can be transported on each subcarrier to 2 and on the other hand, the D-QPSK signal is the most

Figure 3.1

Comparison Between QPSK and QAM 44

Due to this fact the DAB receiver has to recover the signal stream from the phase of the received subcarriers. Since the phase shift of the transmission channel is different for each reception point in the coverage area, normally it would be necessary to transmit a phase reference signal together with the subcarrier. To avoid this, D-QPSK was chosen for DAB. The principle of D-QPSK is quite simple. Instead of assigning the absolute phase defined for a certain bit combinations to the subcarrier the sum of the phases defined by two adjacent symbols is assigned to the subcarrier. In the receiver simply the phase difference has to be built for adjacent symbols to generate the correct bit stream. It is very important that all phase calculations are made in the mathematical positive direction (anticlockwise) (figure 3.2). Since the phase shift in the transmission channel is the same for adjacent symbols the phase

difference between two adjacent symbols is constant. Therefore there is no phase reference needed for the receiver.

3.2 The Application of COFDM for DAB: In the Standard ETS 300 401 the DAB signal is defined as a COFDM signal with a bandwidth of 1,536 MHz and a net bit rate of up to 2,4Mbit/s. A part of this bitrate is needed to organise the COFDM signal and provide redundancy for FEC (Forward Error Correction). Therefore the useful bitrate of the DAB signal is approximately 1,5Mbit/s. Each DAB symbol consists of a certain number of D-QPSK modulated carriers. The number of carriers is depending on the chosen DAB Mode. In the ETSI Standard ETS 300 401 the following four Modes have been defined for the DAB signal:

Figure 3.2

Principle of Differential QPSK

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DAB Mode 1: Defined for national and regional SFN (Single Frequency Networks) in Band III. Used nearly in all countries working on DAB. DAB Mode 2: Defined for regional and local Single Frequency Networks (SFN) in L -Band. Used for example in France, Canada and Germany. DAB Mode 3: Defined for Satellite DAB (S-DAB). At the moment this mode is not used. The idea is to use a satellite for the main coverage and terrestrial transmitters DAB Mode 1 1536 subcarriers DAB Mode 2 384 subcarriers

synchronised with the satellite to cover areas where the satellite signal cannot be received. DAB Mode 4: Defined for national and regional Single Frequency Networks (SFN) in L -Band. At the moment this mode is mainly used in Canada. Important Parameters of the DAB Signals: Number of subcarriers The main difference between the different DAB modes is the number of subcarriers in the COFDM Signal. DAB Mode 3 192 subcarriers DAB Mode 4 768 subcarriers

Subcarrier spacing: Since the frequency bandwidth is 1.536 MHz for all four DAB Modes the spacing between the subcarriers can be calculated as follows:

DAB Mode 1

DAB Mode 2

DAB Mode 3

DAB Mode 4

f Bandwidth: 1.536 MHz 1536 subcarriers 384 subcarriers 192 subcarriers 768 subcarriers

Subcarrier spacing= 1.536 MHz / 1536=

Subcarrier spacing= 1.536 MHz / 384=

Subcarrier spacing= 1.536 / 192=

Subcarrier spacing= 1.536 / 768=

1 kHz

4 kHz

8 kHz

2 kHz

Useful symbol duration: As mentioned before the subcarriers have to be orthogonal. The subcarriers in a COFDM signal are orthogonal if the symbol duration is the inverse of the carrier spacing:

Ts = 1 / ? f

Ts symbol duration ?f sub-carrier spacing

Therefore the useful symbol duration of a DAB symbol can be calculated as follows:

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DAB Mode 1

DAB Mode 2

DAB Mode 3

DAB Mode 4

Useful symbol duration=1 / 1 kHz

Useful symbol duration=1 / 4 kHz

Useful symbol duration=1 / 8 kHz

Useful symbol duration=1 / 2 kHz

1000 s

250 s

125 s

500 s

size of the guard interval, total symbol duration To avoid an ISI (Inter-Symbol-Interference) between each symbol a guard interval has to be inserted. In DA B it was defined to add a guard interval with the time of 24,6 % of the useful

symbol duration. The guard interval can be understood as a delay time between two adjacent symbols. Therefore, the total symbol duration is the sum of the guard interval and the useful symbol duration.

DAB Mode 1

DAB Mode 2

DAB Mode 3

DAB Mode 4

Guard interval = 1000 s*0.246 =

Guard interval = 250 s*0.246 =

Guard interval = 125 s*0.246 =

Guard interval = 500 s*0.246 =

246 s

62 s

31 s

123 s

DAB Mode 1

DAB Mode 2

DAB Mode 3

DAB Mode 4

Total symbol duration = 1000s + 246 s

Total symbol duration = 250s + 62 s

Total symbol duration = 125s + 31 s

Total symbol duration = 500s + 123 s

1246 s

312 s

156 s

623 s

In the table below a summary of the most important parameters for all four DAB modes are given: DAB Mode 1 Frequency Bandwidth Number of Subcarriers Subcarrier Spacing Total symbol Duration Useful symbol Duration DAB Mode 2 DAB Mode 3 1536 kHz 1536 1 kHz 1246 s 1000 s 384 4 kHz 312 s 250 s 192 8 kHz 156 s 125 s 768 2 kHz 623 s 500 s DAB Mode 4

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Guard Interval

246 s

62 s

31 s

123 s

The decision about the chosen mode is mainly depending on the frequency band in which the SFN will operate. The carrier spacing and the time period of the Guard interval are important

parameters for the planning of a Single Frequency Network.

Figure 3.3 Important Parameters of DAB Signals

4. Conclusion
Since the beginning of the radio broadcast era, frequency planning aims to avoid the interference caused by the overlapping of the transmitters service areas. Unfortunately, transmitters overlap is not the unique source of interference; the terrestrial channel has a complex propagation model which produces echoes (multi-path propagation) and when addressing mobile receivers, Doppler frequency shift. As a consequence, in each point of a service area, the signal captured by the receivers results as the sum of several elementary signals including the original signal, some delayed replicas and channel noise. 44

To bypass this physical degradation, the traditional method was to increase the power of the original signal (e.g.: the transmitting power). As a direct consequence, this method enlarges the limit of the channel reusability and accordingly contributes to the artificial increase of the radio frequency spectrum occupancy. A modulation system have been studied which is sufficiently robust and efficient to carry digital signals and to save radio frequency spectrum; the Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (COFDM).

List of Abbreviations:
Band III 174- 240 MHz CD Compact Disk COFDM Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex DAB Digital Audio Broadcasting. DAB - Ensemble Name for the combination of a number of service data streams Data Rate Describes how many bits are transported via a transmission channel per second the units are usually kbit/s or Mbit/s ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute ETS 300401 DAB Standard: DAB to mobile, portable; and fixed receivers ETI Ensemble Transport Interface FM Frequency Modulation FM Band 87.5 MHz -108 MHz G.703/ G.704 Standards for digital signals ITU International Telecommunications Union L-Band 1452 MHz -1492 MHz MPEG Motion Picture Experts Group Multi Path Reception Usually the signal received by an antenna is a combination of signals directly received from the transmitter and signals reflected by mountains, buildings etc. This reflected signals are time delayed and have a different phase than the signal received directly from the transmitter. Depending on the signal strengths of these reflected signals distortions occur. Protection Level Describes the grade of error protection in numbers from 1 to 5 (1very high error protection, 5 ... very low error protection) SFN Single Frequency Network STI Service Transport Interface (defined in ETS 300 797) 44

Sub Channel Part of the DAB Ensemble, each sub channel carries. WG1 / WG2 Bus Work Group 1 / Work Group 2 Bus.

References:
[1] A Seminar on Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), by Hirschmann, Austria GmbH (Istanbul, 1998) [2] A Guide to Digital Radio for Engineers ( NTL Broadcast Radio-BR/(04)/98) [3] A Seminar on Digital Audio Broadcasting, by Hirschmann, Austria GmbH and ITIS, France (Ankara, 1999)