Benefits of Digital Audio Broadcasting

High quality digital audio

Reliable delivery to fixed, portable and mobile receivers for interference-free
reception.
Efficient use of the limited radio frequency spectrum available.
Easy to use receivers.
Flexibility and choice of programmes for listeners.
Added-value system features such as multimedia.
Why delay in adoption?

Low power FM stations are prone to interference.

IBOC licensing, and service rules have not been adopted yet.
Cost is high.

There are three main components to the IBOC system:

The first is a type of advanced quadrature amplitude modulation or QAM. This is

used for encoding the digital signal on traditional AM and FM analog channels.
The second component is time domain multiplexing for producing a stereo signal from
music CDs encoded into DAB format.
The third component is a digital type of stereo FM broadcasting.

A digital audio bit stream is created and recorded on a CD, then read into the
digital encoding section of the digital stereo multiplexer. The bit stream is
divided into eight digital data streams with as many as 96 kbit/s. The 96 kbit
digital data streams are converted to four 56 kbit data streams using advanced
compression technology developed specifically for this application. These 56-kbit-
per-second streams are modulated onto subcarriers spaced 12 kHz apart.

IBOC modes of operation:

There are three modes of operation:

Single-channel mode
Multi-channel mode
Analog/digital simulcast mode.
The single-channel and multi-channel modes are for AM and FM stations,
respectively, while the simulcast mode is used by AM stations that wish to
broadcast a digital signal on the same channel.

The same digital stereo multiplexer or DSX encoder is used for all IBOC stations
but with different configurations as described below. Because the DSX encoder is a
standard piece of equipment, its purchase costs are low. This is an important
consideration since it adds digital processing to an older FM transmitter system.
Digital processing can quickly drain the power supply of a transmitter rendering it
inoperable.