Performance evaluation of MIMO broadcast systems for advanced digital terrestrial TV

The transmission performance of spatial multiplexing cross-polarized MIMO is studied to determine how to increase the capacity of digital terrestrial broadcasting and make it more robust. In this paper, the performance was evaluated in laboratory experiments and large-scale field experiments in central Tokyo under three deployment scenarios. The results showed that the required received power can be improved by 7.3 dB when MIMO is introduced to enhance transmission robustness, i.e., maintaining the same transmission capacity as SISO. Alternatively, the transmission capacity can be doubled by introducing MIMO for the same robustness as SISO, requiring a slight increase in received power of 0.9 dB compared with SISO. The field experiments were performed by using a prototype transmission system for advanced digital terrestrial TV broadcasting in Japan, but the results obtained are also valid for 5G broadcasting. Regarding the feasibility of the advanced terrestrial broadcasting system operating at a target bit rate of about 60 Mbps to distribute a VVC-based 8 K program within a 6-MHz channel bandwidth, an increased received power of 3.7 dB compared with SISO was required for MIMO to achieve a higher transmission capacity in the worst case for 28 reception points evaluated in urban areas.