DVB-SH ("Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite services to Handhelds") is a physical layer standard for delivering IP based media content and data to handheld terminals such as mobile phones or PDAs, based on a hybrid satellite/terrestrial downlink and for example a

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...

uplink. The DVB Project published the DVB-SH standard in February 2007. The DVB-SH system was designed for frequencies below 3 GHz, supporting UHF band, L Band or S-band. It complements and improves the existing

DVB-H DVB-H (digital video broadcasting - handheld) is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 2 ...

physical layer standard. Like its sister specification (DVB-H), it is based on DVB IP Datacast (IPDC) delivery, electronic service guides and service purchase and protection standards. In late 2016, it was acknowledged within the DVB Project newsletter that DVB-SH and the related DVB-H standard had been a commercial failure.

Standard description

Architecture

There are two physical layers (terrestrial and satellite), what increases de system configuration options. Depending on the transmitted signal modulation we can find two kind of architectures: SH-A and SH-B.

SH-A Architecture

Both terrestrial and satellite layers use Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (

OFDM In telecommunications, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a type of digital transmission used in digital modulation for encoding digital (binary) data on multiple carrier frequencies. OFDM has developed into a popular scheme for ...

) this modulation solves the multipath problem, where the same token can be received multiple times with a delay due to bounces. Use OFDM in both transmitters enables creating single-frequency networks ( SFN), that increases spectral efficiency but forces the terrestrial signal being identical to the transmitted by the satellite. For this reason, is permitted to implement Multi-frequency network ( MFN) where terrestrial and satellite components can broadcast through different channels with the same modulation.

SH-B Architecture

Terrestrial component uses

but satellite uses Time-division multiplexing ( TDM). Both components have to broadcast in different frequencies to avoid interference. It is not possible creating SFN but increases satellite´s signal transmission performance because TDM works better with these kinds of transmissions.

Comparison with DVB-H

The DVB-SH incorporates a number of enhancements when compared to DVB-H: *More alternative coding rates are available *The omission of the 64QAM modulation scheme *The inclusion of support for 1.7 MHz bandwidth and 1k FFT *FEC using Turbo coding *Improved time interleaving *Support for antenna diversity in terminals Recently, results from BMCO forum
Alcatel April 2008
shows a radio improvement of at least 5.5 dB on signal requirements between DVB-H and DVB-SH in the UHF frequencies. The improvements to signal requirements translates to better in-building penetration, better in-car coverage and extension of outdoor coverage. DVB-SH chipsets are being developed now by DiBcom and

NXP Semiconductors NXP Semiconductors N.V. is a Dutch semiconductor manufacturing and design company with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is the third largest European semiconductor company by market capitalization as of 2024. The company employs approx ...

, and are expected to be available in beginning of 2008. Initial specifications show that the chipsets supports both UHF and S-Band and are compatible with DVB-H. DiBcom has announced a DVB-SH chip with availability in 2008 Q3
Dibcom DVB-SH 2008 Q3
The chip "has dual RF tuners supporting VHF, UHF, L-Band and S-Band frequencies".

Project organization

French

Agence de l'innovation industrielle The Agence de l'innovation industrielle was a French governmental agency created in 2005 to support technological projects. As of 2006, it was supporting seven projects: *BioHub, a chemistry projects to create products with cereals, without using ...

is now financing this effort through TVMSL, a project led by

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...

that plans to develop a DVB-SH standard suitable for hybrid satellite and terrestrial transmission. Other partners involved in TVMSL are Sagem Wireless, Alenia, RFS,

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

, DiBcom, TeamCast, UDcast,

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

INRIA The National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) () is a French national research institution focusing on computer science and applied mathematics. It was created under the name French Institute for Research in Comp ...

, CEA-LETI.

Satellites

ICO, one of the biggest satellite operators in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, in 2007 announced a nationwide deployment of an hybrid satellite/terrestrial network in DVB-SH with

and Expway. ICO G1 satellite carrying DVB-SH technology on board was launched on April 14, 2008. It is the world's first DVB-SH satellite in orbit.

Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it has been the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Its subsidiary E ...

W2A satellite carrying a Solaris Mobile (a

and SES

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

, now EchoStar Mobile) DVB-SH

S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the conventiona ...

payload was launched on 3 April 2009. It will cover Western Europe. S-band payload was scheduled to enter into service in May 2009 but this did not occur due to an anomaly currently being investigated. On 1 July 2009, Solaris Mobile filed the insurance claim. The technical findings indicate that the company should be able to offer some, but not all of the services it was planning to offer.

Inmarsat Inmarsat is a British communications satellite, satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services. It provides telephone and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate with groun ...

satellite programme, called EuropaSat, will deliver mobile multimedia broadcast, mobile two-way broadband telecommunications and next-generation MSS services across all member states of the European Union and as far east as Moscow and Ankara by means of a hybrid satellite/terrestrial network. It will be built by

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

and launched in early 2011 by ILS.

Trials

, DVB-H/SH trials were- or had recently been- underway in many cities and countries:

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Roeselare Roeselare (; ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke. The name of the city is derived from two ...

, and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. DVB-SH in S-band is seen as an alternative in Europe. Field trials and studies showed better performance in radio than DVB-H standard that would lead to much lower costs for network deployments. In

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

again, SFR and

teamed up to deploy a DVB-SH trial. The results confirmed the theoretical assumptions on the superiority of the DVB-SH over DVB-H, being the natural evolution of this legacy technology. In

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, 3 Italia, RAI and

joined forces for the first DVB-SH trial in Italy. In

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

and

joined forces for the first DVB-SH trial in US.

References

External links

DVB-SH standardization history, performance evaluation, research papers on DVB-SH system, DVB-SH trials and other scientific contributions

DVB Project

DVB-H.org

DVB-SH: Mobile digital TV in S-Band (EBU Technical Review article)
*
Alcatel April 2008

April 2008 in Italian

Echostar Mobile

Eutelsat

ICO

AT&T CruiseCast
{{Satcomm Digital Video Broadcasting Broadcast engineering Mobile telephone broadcasting Satellite broadcasting