Broadening horizons

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As wireless broadband technologies mature and the spread of FTTH networks impact broadband penetration levels, the prospects for IP-based content delivery are improving. Digital Broadcast investigates.

Live HD quality transmission via broadband to a mobile device seems like a remote development, particularly in the Middle East given that several of these individual components, chiefly broadband and HD broadcasting, remain in their infancy.

During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, however, a demonstration of just this was provided by Motorola.

The company deployed a Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband network connecting their booth at the exhibition centre to a van that was driven around the streets of the host city.

Of particular interest was the network's ability to stream HD video to LTE test handsets on the showfloor. The opportunities for on-demand video services delivered over the internet via an LTE wireless broadband network are obvious.

"The WiMAX standard might be able to handle some video but when it comes to delivering quality video services for mobiles via wireless broadband, LTE far exceeds WiMAX," says Ian Wilkinson, solutions marketing manager, Motorola.

"Fibre-based broadband networks can reach 50 MB/s comfortably, we expect LTE to stretch beyond that."

Given that the demonstration managed to transmit its HD signal at speeds of just 8MB/s, a fraction of the standard's full potential, the use of LTE networks suddenly appears feasible.

With telcos likely to invest in this infrastructure over the course of the next five years, perhaps the upcoming investment in DVB-H networks from several operators in the Middle East could be unwise if video content were to become widely accessible via LTE.

However the unicast nature of LTE means that locations with high density populations will begin to see a reduction in the speed of their service in much the same way as an overcrowded Wi-Fi network.

"LTE will bring more bandwidth, but it can't support high-quality mobile TV when you have a few dozen subscribers in one cell of the network," says Stefan Schneiders, business development for mobile TV and mobile advertising, consulting and systems integration, Nokia Siemens Networks. "A test is always nice, but you need to compare them on same level i.e. the number of commercial launches between the technologies.

"Commercial DVB-H devices are available from Nokia, Samsung and LG, but we do not foresee potential for any commercial LTE device in the near future," he claims.

Motorola's wireless broadband marketing manager noel Kirkaldy is less convinced about the problems the shortcomings of LTE will create for video delivery in the long term.

"DVB-H and DVB-S have a role to play but we will see a shift away from these technologies and towards LTE networks," says Noel Kirkaldy, director marketing for wireless broadband at Motorola.

"It all comes down to the economies of scale. There are only so many different networks that an operator wants to be running in parallel. In the immediate future we are going to see DVB-H and other standards. The industry will use whatever technology it can get its hands on as long as it can deliver the quality of service that they require", he adds.

So DVB-H would appear to remain the clear front runner for mobile broadcasting with LTE offering unicast on-demand content, depending on the specific network conditions. The more pertinent question could be how relevant linear broadcasting will be in three to five year's time and what effect will it have on the success of DVB-H services?

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