Broadcast Engineering:

Digital Radio Broadcasting Technologies

Digital radio Broadcasting Technologies.
In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized,
compressed using formats such as mp2, and transmitted using
a digital modulation scheme.
The aim is to:
 increase the number of radio programs in a given spectrum,
 improve the audio quality, to eliminate fading problems in mobile
environments,
 allow additional datacasting services
 decrease the transmission power or the number of transmitters
required to cover a region.
Digital radio Broadcasting Technologies
In 2012 there are four digital wireless radio systems
recognized by the International Telecommunications Union:
 DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting system) - Europe
 DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) - Europe
 ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) - Japan
 HD-Radio (IBOC) – U.S.A.
ISDB-TSB system
ISDB-TSB
Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting for Terrestrial
Sound Broadcasting
System for terrestrial digital sound broadcasting (in
VHF / UHF).
Intended for vehicular, portable and fixed reception.
Recommended as System F of Recommendation ITU-R
BS.1114-6.
Commonality with ISDB-T of the DTTB system (also
recommended as System C of Recommendation ITU-R
BT.1306-3 System C).
Requirements for ISDB-TSB
Mobile and handheld reception
Car audio
Cell phone, PDA, PC
High Quality Audio
Equivalent to CD
Multi-channel audio (5.1 surround, multilingual, etc.)
Multimedia services
Data services
Information related to current program
Independent information (latest news, weather forecast, traffic information, etc.)
Electronic program guide
Saving frequency resources
Limited channels for digital radio
Reduction of guard bands between adjacent ISDB-TSB channel
Simple assignment of channels for ISDB-TSB
IMPLEMENTATION
The NTC chose to use the Japanese standard ISDB-T
for digital television in the country in Memorandum
Circular 02-06-2010, noting its capability to 3 levels of
categorized modulation (audio, video and data
services) to fixed, portable and handheld devices
exclusive of the necessity for a supplementary
communication facility.
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a system developed
in the late 80’s originally aimed at improving the current
FM audio broadcasting system by:
Providing CD-quality audio
Improving in-car (mobile) reception
Improving spectrum use
Allowing data (such as text) to be sent
DAB is also known as Eureka 147
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)
How does DAB work?
DAB depends on several digital technologies in order to
accomplish its objectives:
Audio compression (MPEG-1, Layer 2)
Digital multiplexing (TDM)
Digital radio transmission (OFDM/DQPSK)
Error correction coding (convolution coding)
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)
MPEG-1 Layer 2 Audio Compression
DAB uses MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2 (MP2, not to be confused
with MPEG-2), also called MUSICAM
It is a perceptual coding technique using psychoacoustic
modeling which provides for high quality lossy signal
compression.
Psychoacoustics is based heavily on human anatomy, especially
the ear's limitations in perceiving sound. These are:
 High frequency limit
 Absolute threshold of hearing
 Temporal masking
 Simultaneous masking
DAB
MPEG-1 Layer 2 Audio Compression
Given that the ear will not be at peak perceptive capacity when
dealing with these limitations, a compression algorithm can assign
a lower priority to sounds outside the range of human hearing
By carefully shifting bits away from the unimportant components
and toward the important ones, the algorithm ensures that the
sounds a listener can hear most clearly are of the highest quality.
With this, certain parts of a given digital audio signal can be
removed (or aggressively compressed) safely -that is, without
significant losses in the (consciously) perceived quality of the
sound .
Multiplexing
DAB combines multiple audio streams onto a single broadcast
frequency called a DAB ensemble.
The total bandwidth can divided into a number of channels,
and can either be stereophonic or monophonic, each channel
having different bit rates.
The number of channels can be increased or decreased by
varying the bit rate per channel.
Adding error correction coding (ECC) adds robustness to the
ensemble, but reduces the total bandwidth available for the
channels
Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM)
Essentially identical to Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (COFDM), it is a digital transmission technique
to combat the effects of multipath fading.
OFDM uses a large number of closely-spaced orthogonal
subcarriers.
Each subcarrier is modulated using conventional digital
techniques (e.g. BPSK, QAM)
Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM)
To increase the error correction capabilities of DAB, it uses
frequency and time interleaving on the bitstream.
After interleaving, the symbols are modulated onto the
subcarriers using differential quaternary phase shift keying
(DQPSK)
DAB uses 1,536 subcarriers spaced 1 kHz apart.
Concept of OFDM
Simplified processing scheme for OFDM
in DSP
COFDM Transmitter / Receiver
The Discrete Fourier Transform
Revisited
The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) calculates the discrete
frequency spectrum from a block of discrete time samples of
the signal. Therefore, the inverse DFT calculates the discrete
time samples from a discrete frequency spectrum.
This means that the frequency spectrum of the transmitted
signal is given by the values of the complex data symbols on
the subcarriers.
The DFT however is computationally inefficient. An npoint
DFT would require n2 complex multiplications. The Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT ), as the name suggests, is a faster
way of computing the DFT.
OFDM/DAB Spectrum
Frequency Allocations
ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-
Terrestrial) in Japan use UHF 470 MHz-770 MHz
bandwidth of 300 MHz, allocate 50 channels, namely
channel 13 through to channel 62.
300 MHz with 50 channels. each channel is 6 MHz width
(actually 5.572 MHz effective bandwidth and 430 kHz
guard band between channels). These channels are called
"physical channel".
for other countries, US channel table or European channel
table are used.
DAB vs. FM
DAB promises near-CD quality audio when the audio is encoded
at 256 kbps.
Broadcasters however, in order to maximize bandwidth, try to
put in as much stations as possible by using lower bit rates.
192 kbps is the lower limit, which provides near-FM quality
sound, provided that bit error rates (BER) are well below 10 -4.
Furthermore, ECC is not as robust as it should be in order to
minimize BER.
98% of stations in the UK use 128 kbps, resulting in poor quality
sound. Most listeners report that DAB sounds worse than FM.
Enter DAB+…
The implementation of DAB used technologies which are old
by today’s standards.
DAB+ is an upgrade to DAB, making use of newer
technologies.
Audio is encoded using HE-AAC (High Efficiency Advanced
Audio Coding), also known as AAC+.
A second layer of error correction coding on the bitstream in
the form of Reed-Solomon encoding.
DAB+ however, is not backward-compatible with DAB.
DAB+ was launched in the UK in 2008.
Does that mean that analog
broadcasting is dead?
No! Not yet anyway.
History tells us that AM has been in use for more than a
century now and little has changed with it.
FM was developed in the 1930’s and found widespread use
only by the 1960’s. It is still going strong today.
Adoption takes time, and there should be a period of gradual
changeover from the old system to the new.
There is therefore a need for a hybrid system, a system that
works with the old analog system, and at the same time
transmits digital broadcasts.
In-Band On-Channel (IBOC)
IBOC is a method of transmitting digital radio and analog radio
broadcasts simultaneously on the same channel.
It is unlike DAB which uses a separate band altogether.
However like DAB, it utilizes COFDM by adding sidebands
orthogonal to the analog carrier to ‘piggyback’ the digital
information.
In hybrid mode (both analog and digital), receivers have a
fallback mechanism that switches to analog mode when the
digital signal encounters a significant level of error.
Eventually, stations can go from hybrid mode to all digital, by
eliminating the baseband monophonic audio altogether.
In-Band On-Channel (IBOC)
IBOC is available for both AM and FM broadcast bands
with several standards available:
For AM
 Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)
 HD Radio Broadcasting
 CAM-D

For FM
 HD Radio Broadcasting
 FMeXtra
 DRM+
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)
DRM can provide FM-quality sound on frequencies below 30
MHz (long-, medium-, and short-wave)
Similar to DAB, audio is encoded using perceptual coding –
MPEG-4.
Also, the signal is modulated using COFDM, but uses a fewer
number of sidebands than DAB.
It is also the name of the non-profit consortium that developed
the platform.
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a standard used primarily to compress audio and
visual (AV) digital data.
MPEG-4 Part 3 specifies audio coding methods in the
standard.
It is a more efficient coding algorithm, allowing for CD-quality
audio at much lower bit rates (as low as 64 kbps).
Audio Source Coding
Depending on the source material, the audio can be
encoded using any of the following MPEG-4 flavors:
HE-AAC: a perceptual coder suited for voice and music.
CELP: Code Excited Linear Predictive Encoder. Suited for
voice only (vocoder), and uses a very low bit rate.
HVXC: Harmonic Vector eXcitation Coder. Also a speech
coder that uses a much lower bit rate than CELP.
Bandwidth
DRM can be done on different bandwidths:
4.5 kHz or 5 kHz
 These are half channels used in hybrid mode.
 By using a 10 kHz channel for AM, plus a 5 kHz half channel

sideband for DRM, a broadcaster has the option to simulcast.

 However the resulting bit rate and audio quality is less

(approximately 8-16 kbps).

9 kHz or 10 kHz
 These are the standard bandwidth of an AM broadcasting channel
so the existing frequency plan can be reused.
 Bit rate is approximately 17-35 kbps.
Bandwidth
18 kHz or 20 kHz
This correspond to a coupling of two adjacent channels.
It offers the possibility to offer a better audio quality or to
multiplex audio channels in the same transmitter.
Uses a bit rate of approximately 31-72 kbps.
Modulation
DRM uses COFDM, with every subcarrier encoded in
either 64-QAM, 16-QAM, or 4-QAM.
There are also 4 profiles for different propagation
conditions.
A. Gaussian channel with very little multipath propagation
and Doppler effect. This profile is suited for local or
regional broadcasting.
B. Multipath propagation channel. This mode is suited for
medium range transmission. It is nowadays frequently used.
Modulation
C. Similar to mode B, but with better robustness to Doppler
(more carrier spacing). This mode is suited for long distance
transmission.
D. Similar to mode B, but with a resistance to large delay
spread and Doppler spread. This case exists with adverse
propagation conditions on very long distance transmissions.
The useful bit rate for this profile is decreased.
Modulation
Error Correction Coding
DRM uses a more robust ECC, and the bit rate can be
adjusted depending on the propagation profile.
DRM+
In 2005, the DRM Consortium decided to extend the DRM
system to operate in all the broadcasting bands below 120
MHz.
This range includes:
47 MHz to 68 MHz (Band I): allocated to analog television
broadcasting
65.8 MHz to 74 MHz: OIRT (Organisation Internationale de
Radiodiffusion et de Télévision) FM band
76 MHz to 90 MHz: Japanese FM band
87.5 MHz to 107.9 MHz (Band II): allocated to FM radio
broadcasting.
HD Radio
HD Radio (short for High-Definition) is the trademark of
iBiquity Digital Corporation that developed the IBOC
platform for hybrid FM broadcasts.
It was selected by the FCC for digital audio broadcasting in the
United States in 2002.
The audio is also encoded in some form of perceptual audio
coding – iBiquity’s proprietary codec.
HD Radio also provides data services like radio text, song
information, etc.
The digital data stream is modulated using COFDM, adding
sidebands to the original FM carrier.
Audio Coding
Originally, HD Radio employed PAC (perceptual audio
coding).
Later, it was changed to HDC (high-definition coding),
which is based on MPEG-4 HE-AAC.
Modulation
HD Radio uses COFDM, employing several bit rates for
hybrid analog/digital and all-digital transmissions.
FM hybrid digital/analog mode offers four options which
can carry approximately 100, 112, 125, or 150 kbps of
data.
 In pure digital modes, broadcasts can be made at 270 or
300 kbps maximum, thus enabling extra features like
surround sound (with perceived CD-quality audio).
Modulation
In pure digital stations the bandwidth can be divided,
allowing as many as 3 full-power channels and 4 low-
power channels (7 total) – analogous to a DAB Ensemble.
As defined by iBiquity, these channels could be sub-
divided into:
CD-quality (100 kbps)
FM-quality (25-50 kbps)
AM-quality (12 kbps)
Talk-quality (5 kbps)
Bandwidth and Power
Normally, analog FM stations are licensed to operate with
75 kHz of modulation.
But additional services like subcarrier services (like SCA)
and RBDS (radio broadcast data service) increase this
value to 130 kHz.
In regular hybrid mode, an additional 70 kHz of digital
signal is added onto the analog modulation.
In order to use extended hybrid modes, some subcarrier
services may be discontinued to allow additional digital
bandwidth.
Bandwidth and Power
Separate exciters are used to modulate the different
signals and may be combined either before, or after
amplification.
A single transmitting antenna can be used, or in the case
of separate transmitters, a different antenna for the digital
signal.
In any case, the ratio of the analog signal power over the
digital signal power is standardized at 100:1.
FM / HD Radio Spectral Analysis
FM / HD Radio Spectral Analysis
HD Radio for AM
iBiquity also created a mediumwave HD Radio system for AM,
which is the only system approved by the FCC for digital AM
broadcasting in the United States.
The HD Radio system employs use of injecting digital sidebands
above and below the audible portion of the analog audio on the
primary carrier.
This system also phase modulates the carrier in quadrature and
injects more digital information on this phase-modulated portion of
the carrier.
It is based on the principle of AM stereo where it puts a digital
signal where the C-QUAM system would put the analog stereo
decoding information.
FMeXtra
FMeXtra is an IBOC technology created by Digital Radio
Express.
Unlike iBiquity's HD Radio system, it uses any FM radio
station's existing equipment to transmit digital audio data on
subcarriers instead of sidebands.
The method is similar to other subcarrier services like SCA and
RBDS.
To minimize bandwidth requirements, the audio is encoded in
AAC and AAC+.
It also requires no royalties for its use, which run thousands of
dollars per year for HD Radio
CAM-D
CAM-D stands for Compatible AM – Digital.
It is a true hybrid system, transmitting both analog and
digital signals of the same program material.
It works by encoding treble information on very narrow
digital sidebands to augment the mid and bass frequencies
already present in a standard AM signal.
This digital treble signal is then mixed together with the
analog bass/mid-frequency signal at the receiver end.
Digital Radio Broadcasting in
the Philippines
The first HD Radio in the Philippines was installed for limited testing
on November 9, in 2005 in Baguio City by Radio Mindanao
Networks (RMN).
RMN officially commenced broadcasting in digital on May 24, 2007,
via its flagship FM station - iFM 93.9 DWKC.
As for AM, there have been plans of adopting DRM as a viable
platform.
NTC released MC 11-11-2007, guidelines for operations of digital
FM broadcast signed by former NTC commissioner Ruel Canobas.
There is an ongoing revision of the circular a per say by NTC.
No official memoranda have also been issued by the NTC with regard
to the continued operation of analog radio broadcasts.