2k or not 2k?

Tutorial on modulation for DTT by Ken McCann

The UK transmissions will use the DVB terrestrial transmission standard, known as DVB-T. This uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with QPSK, 16-QAM or 64-QAM modulation and a choice of rates of concatenated error correction to provide a high level of protection against interfering signals and multi-path propagation due to reflections from hills or buildings The basic idea of OFDM is to use a large number of carriers each modulated at a relatively low symbol rate to spread the information content of the signal evenly across the 8MHz bandwidth of the UHF channel. This contrasts with traditional modulation systems which modulate a single carrier at a high symbol rate and produce a very uneven distribution of energy. DVB-T offers a choice of two options for the number of carriers, each with the same fundamental data capacity. In "2K" mode, 1705 carriers are used to carry symbols with a useful duration of 224m s, whereas in "8K" mode there are 6817 carriers with a useful symbol duration of 896m s. The reason for having two modes is to allow a trade-off to be made between receiver complexity and the ability to withstand long echoes. To avoid problems with echoes, a "guard interval" is inserted between consecutive OFDM symbols. Echoes from a previous symbol should die away during the guard interval to avoid disturbing the following OFDM symbol. It is possible to exploit the guard interval further by creating a single frequency network (SFN), i.e. a network of transmitters which broadcast identical information on the same frequency. In areas of overlap, the weaker of the two received signals will appear as an artificial "echo". The time delay of a real echo will rarely be more than a few microseconds as reflections from distant objects will be so attenuated as not to cause problems. However the duration of an artificial "echo" from a more powerful distant transmitter in a large area SFN could be significantly longer, e.g. about 200m s for a transmitter 60km away. This could be accommodated in 8K mode by setting the guard interval to 224m s, i.e. 1/4 of the useful symbol duration. In the 2K mode, a guard interval of 1/4 of useful symbol duration corresponds to 56m s, which may not be sufficient to allow a national SFN. The main disadvantage of the 8K mode is in the receiver complexity. In practical terms, this translates into receiver cost and date of availability. The first samples of a low-cost single-chip 2K receiver are appearing now, while the 8K receiver has just reached the stage of a four-chip technology demonstrator. The UK has therefore chosen the 2K mode of DVB-T, as timescales are critical and the regional nature of much UK programming means that the possibility of large area SFNs holds little attraction.