Diversity Receiver for ATSC 3.0-in-Vehicle: Design and Field Evaluation in Metropolitan SFN

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of multi-antenna reception to facilitate mobile broadcasting for vehicular receivers. Starting from a dimension analysis estimating the spatial capacity of automobiles, we confirm multi-antenna embedding as a viable solution for vehicular broadcast receivers. Accordingly, a rolling prototype of an ATSC 3.0 multi-antenna diversity receiver (DivRx) is implemented and repeatedly tested on public roads. The field verification tests in this paper aim to evaluate the performance of DivRx in real broadcast environments, represented by an urban single-frequency network (SFN) with high-power transmissions using ultra-high frequencies. To this end, extensive field trials are drawn in an operating ATSC 3.0 network located in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, South Korea. Public on-air services of 1080p and 4K videos are tested, targeting inter-city journeys and trips in urban centroids, respectively. The mobile reliability gain of DivRx is empirically evaluated in terms of coverage probability and the field strength required for 95% receivability. The results show that leveraging four antennas can achieve 99% coverage of intra-city 4K service in the current network status, deriving 65% more gain over single-antenna systems. It is also exhibited that the signal strength requirement can be reduced by 13 dB or more. In addition to the empirical evaluation, we provide theoretical proofs aligning with the observations.