ETSI
ETSI EN 300 744 V1.4.1 (2001-
1)
4 Baseline system
4.1 General considerations
The system is defined as the functional block of equipment performing the adaptation of the baseband TV signals from
the output of the MPEG-2 transport multiplexer, to the terrestrial channel characteristics. The following processes shall
be applied to the data stream (see figure 1):
- transport multiplex adaptation and randomization for energy dispersal;
- outer coding (i.e. Reed-Solomon code);
- outer interleaving (i.e. convolutional interleaving);
- inner coding (i.e. punctured convolutional code);
- inner interleaving;
- mapping and modulation;
- Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmission.
The system is directly compatible with MPEG-2 coded TV signals ISO/IEC 13818 [1].
Since the system is being designed for digital terrestrial television services to operate within the existing VHF and UHF
(see note) spectrum allocation for analogue transmissions, it is required that the System provides sufficient protection
against high levels of Co-Channel Interference (CCI) and Adjacent-Channel Interference (ACI) emanating from
existing PAL/SECAM/NTSC services. It is also a requirement that the System allows the maximum spectrum
efficiency when used within the VHF and UHF bands; this requirement can be achieved by utilizing Single Frequency
Network (SFN) operation.
NOTE: The OFDM system in the present document is specified for 8 MHz, 7 MHz and 6 MHz channel spacing.
The basic specification is the same for the three bandwidths except for the parameter elementary period T,
which is unique for the respective bandwidths. From an implementation point of view the elementary
period T can normally be seen as the inverse of the nominal system clock rate. By adjusting the system
clock rate the bandwidth and bit rate are modified accordingly.
To achieve these requirements an OFDM system with concatenated error correcting coding is being specified.
To maximize commonality with the Satellite baseline specification (see EN 300 421 [2]) and Cable baseline
specifications (see EN 300 429 [3]) the outer coding and outer interleaving are common, and the inner coding is
common with the Satellite baseline specification. To allow optimal trade off between network topology and frequency
efficiency, a flexible guard interval is specified. This will enable the system to support different network configurations,
such as large area SFN and single transmitter, while keeping maximum frequency efficiency.
Two modes of operation are defined: a "2K mode" and an "8K mode". The "2K mode" is suitable for single transmitter
operation and for small SFN networks with limited transmitter distances. The "8K mode" can be used both for single
transmitter operation and for small and large SFN networks.
The system allows different levels of QAM modulation and different inner code rates to be used to trade bit rate versus
ruggedness. The system also allows two level hierarchical channel coding and modulation, including uniform and multi-
resolution constellation. In this case the functional block diagram of the system shall be expanded to include the
modules shown dashed in figure 1. The splitter separates the incoming transport stream into two independent MPEG
transport streams, referred to as the high-priority and the low-priority stream. These two bitstreams are mapped onto the
signal constellation by the Mapper and Modulator which therefore has a corresponding number of inputs.
To guarantee that the signals emitted by such hierarchical systems may be received by a simple receiver the hierarchical
nature is restricted to hierarchical channel coding and modulation without the use of hierarchical source coding.