Radio Propagation in Terrestrial Broadcasting Television Systems: A Comprehensive Survey

During the last two decades, terrestrial TV broadcasting has evolved from analog to digital technology, permitting a better spectrum efficiency, being more resistant to noise and interference as well as improving signal quality. High Definition TeleVison (HDTV) has been introduced to enhance the viewer's experience. HDTV and Ultra High Definition TeleVision bring the challenge of having a quasi-error free performance at a bit error rate as low as 10(-12); i.e. less than one uncorrectable error during one hour's continuous transmission of 5 Mbps data stream. Such low error rates require robust standards, careful network planning and optimized service operation. Propagation phenomena have a direct (and possibly critical) impact on those three pillars. This paper fills the current gap of a thorough survey on propagation methods and models for broadcasting. We contribute to this field with a description and analysis of propagation phenomena concerning different aspects of the broadcast network planning, broadcast standard evaluation, and broadcast service operation. The paper provides also a technical perspective of state-of-the-art TV broadcast standards and discusses the relevancy of propagation studies with future and development and regulation challenges.