Implementing Statistical Multiplexing in DVB-H

A novel technique for implementing statistical multiplexing (StatMux) of broadcast services over Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H) channels is proposed. DVB-H uses a time-sliced transmission scheme to reduce the power consumption used for radio reception part in DVB-H receivers. Due to the time-sliced transmission scheme, the implementation of known StatMux methods for DVB-H application presents some challenges which are addressed in this paper. The proposed StatMux technique is implemented in conjunction with the time-slicing transmission scheme. The combination is similar to a time division multiplexing (TDM) scheme. The proposed StatMux method considerably decreases the end-to-end delay of DVB-H services while it maximizes the usage of available bandwidth. Moreover, the proposed method can effectively decrease the channel switching delay of DVB-H services. Simulation results show a high performance for the proposed StatMux method. Copyright (C) 2009 Mehdi Rezaei et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.