DVB-H Planning and Ics Telecom: A Tutorial
DVB-H Planning and Ics Telecom: A Tutorial
A TUTORIAL
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INDEX
DVB-H stands for Digital Video Broadcast – Handheld and means a well known television broadcast service
with all the advantages of a digital signal (good image and sound quality even for close to the receiver
sensitivity signal received or high bandwidth performance broadcasting several digital programs on one
single analogue channel for example), plus the commodity of watching television on a handheld device while
Planning such a network involves tasks belonging to digital broadcasting (gap fillers, multiple and single
frequency interference, etc.) and cellular (handover, uplink supported on a complementary 3G network,
etc.).
ICS Telecom is the general purpose software for the engineers planning any radiocommunication service,
of special interest whenever several different technologies work together sharing frequency plan or
complementary tasks. Analysis will regard coverage, frequency planning and interferences, traffic
This document is meant to be a Tutorial for new ICS Telecom users or those who where involved in the
past in planning other technologies different to DVB. Also it provides a light introduction to the most
important topics about DVB-H applied in ICS Telecom planning, however it is highly suggested reading
ATDI’s white paper WP_DVBH_planning_ICStelecom.pdf available at our web site www.atdi.com, for a much
The basis of every planning project is a cartographic dataset covering the service area for the network. A
.- Vector data: roads, streets, railway, water and coastline, etc. (Optional)
All these files (except vector) are matrixes where each pixel has a fixed square size ranging from 0.5 to 500
Depending on the coverage of the network, we will use medium resolution cartography or high resolution
cartography:
.- When coverage is large and transmitters use large EIRP covering long radius we will use medium
resolution data, specially focused on rural areas or several small towns. This is what we call Macro-scale
.- When coverage is not larger than a city and transmitters are numerous using low EIRP and covering short
radius we will use high resolution data, modelling buildings and streets, even having indoor users and thus
needing a higher density network. This scenario is called Micro-scale design. Pixel size will range from 0.5
meters to 5 meters.
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Loading a project in ICS Telecom requires only indicating what are the cartographic files (one per layer)
and where they are. As soon as you launch ICS Telecom, Project Manager window will appear (if not,
Files/Project Manager) and a double click on each Content line will let you browse for each file.
The master file is the DTM. All other files must be compatible with it regarding resolution and geographic
coordinate system (see column Compatibility). Image, clutter and building resolution must be the same or
Available RAM memory must be about 5 times the size of DTM. If smaller, all files will be resampled loading
only one out of two or more of the matrix pixels thus reducing resolution two or more times.
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Before loading the project (Load button), save the project (Save project button) with a name that will
recognise it in the future and will be added to the list or recent projects.
Once the project is loaded (evolution of loading tasks is shown at the bar on the very bottom of the screen),
the several layers can be shown selecting at the list from button ‘Layer’ on top of the toolbar on the left.
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Before entering any new or existing station of our network to plan, some global parameters that will remain
unchanged all along the project evolution can be set and saved at the parameter file .PRM.
Most important one is the Propagation Model to use. It can be found at menu Tools/Propagation model…
At this point an important decision must be taken: we can use deterministic models or empirical models.
Deterministic models use electromagnetic field propagation laws directly applied to the cartographic
model. These laws include Free Space loss, Diffraction, Fresnel zone blocking, Climate and Multipath effects.
We must use deterministic models when frequency is high, above UHF, and cartographic model is high
resolution (including building models). High frequencies behave more like rays than waves, what means we
can apply the laws and measure multipath phenomena. These rays will follow paths where reflection and
blocking happens strongly depending on the real shape of the land, buildings included. Best deterministic
models are:
Regarding climate, especially for high frequencies, Gaz and Fog should be checked.
Rain should never be used if receiving threshold is already including a reliability margin above rx equipment
sensitivity threshold.
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In order to analyse multipath effect, 3D coverage options must be checked. A new small menu will be shown
.- Maximum delta ToA margin for constructive FS (usec). Signal reaching the receiver much later than direct
.- Margin required if DToA is exceeded (dB). Wanted field strength and unwanted field strength must keep a ratio
.- Synchronization threshold (dBu). If all received signals are under this level, rx equalizer won’t be able to
build one single signal, even though composite field strength is above receiving threshold.
.- Grid Step. Grid step above 1 will analyse multipath faster but less accurate.
.- Mode (Lambertian = 1, Specular = 0). Rays will always reflect following specular rule (value 0).
Empirical models are based on regression of statistical data from path loss of many well known relays (Tx
-> Rx). These models use simple equations with little dependence on the cartographic data, and are only
valid for short ranges of frequencies and specific environments (urban, suburban, open/rural, sea, etc.).
Most of them are focused on low frequencies under UHF where signals travel along the land more like waves
than rays. Because of this reason using high resolution cartography is useless and medium resolution is
more adequate.
.- ITU-R P.1546
.- Hata-COST231
.- SUI method
.- ITM – Longley-Rice
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Each one of these methods uses a different set of equations and may need some specific parameters to be
In addition to the propagation model, the Clutter can take his role affecting to the path loss as one more
obstacle on the terrain for deterministic models, indicating the rx environment for empirical models and/or
adding extra loss to the path budget (tuning of the propagation model for example).
Clutter can be accessed through menu Tools/Clutter options and also from some other menus like
propagation model.
Each clutter code from 0 to 19 can have its own name and some 8 more parameters. See matrix below:
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.- Attenuation: option none means no attenuation will be added to the path loss; option user will add a
user defined constant attenuation to any rx on that clutter code; option dB/km will add an attenuation
proportional to the length of the path from tx to rx crossing a clutter code, what is typically used for
modelling signal absorption when a receiver is indoor and signals arrive crossing one or more buildings. No
attenuation is suggested for medium resolution project unless a tuning of the propagation model is done
before. dB/km option is suggested for high resolution projects specially where indoor receivers are regarded.
.- Clutter height: on high resolution projects, there is no need for this parameters, each clutter height is
given by building layer. On medium resolution project it is highly suggested using an average height for each
clutter code, especially when using deterministic propagation models. Height factor is applied to all clutter.
.- Reflection factor: whenever a ray is reflected, clutter code on that point will give ICS Telecom the
.- Erlang/km2: some ICS Telecom traffic analysis functions can calculate traffic demand regarding demand
.- Surface factor: some functions will ignore a clutter code if surface factor is 0.
.- Diffraction factor: when it comes to height of an obstacle regarding diffraction, sometimes this height is
a little smaller that real height, that is the case for forest and wood. ICS Telecom will use clutter height *
.- Station/km2: ICS Telecom can generate random stations for different purposes. These random stations
.- Stddev: after a measurement campaign, ICS Telecom can compare real field strength and coverage
prediction calculating the standard deviation of the statistical error per clutter.
Finally, users must be set on the clutter or in the clutter so that their height will be added to the clutter
height of the pixel they are located on, or just ignored. Check the corresponding at boxes on the lower right
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corner of the menu. Some clutter can have an exception when rx over clutter is checked to be rx over
Using button Save at any moment we can keep a copy of these general parameters (propagation model and
clutter options) on a PRM file attached to the project (Update project = Yes).
Loading stations is simple as clicking on the map or just selecting an Excel file with a list of existing sites.
If we want to input one single station, just click on the map and select ‘Add stations -> Tx/Rx’ or press ‘p’
If the coordinate system you are about to input is not the current one click on button ‘Coordinate conversion’
and select the right one (a coordinate system comprises ‘Coordinate system’ plus ‘Datum’, for example,
When an existing list of sites is available as an Excel file (CSV or comma separated values), ICS Telecom will
Browse for the file to import, select the separator and default coordinate system (if no column specifies it),
Once you have stations on the map you must completely parameterise them, one by one or in batch. Let’s
Click on the stations, select its name and open ‘parameters’. Or open the list of stations on the map (List
button at the toolbar on the left, Station list) and right click on any station record.
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On your left you can set the technical parameters: Power, Gain, Losses, Frequency, Antenna height and
Bandwidth.
On your right you can specify several labels. Most important one is Callsign (10 char.). Useful ones are
Radiation Pattern can be set at Pattern tab and will comprise a combination of Horizontal pattern, Vertical
At each pattern window you can select existing patterns (button select), import from Planet or ASCII, or
create your own one (input pairs azimuth-loss or click on the pattern, ICS Telecom will interpolate).
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Advanced parameters will regards those very specific parameters of a DVB-H signal that will affect to the
QPSK ½ 8.5
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16QAM ½ 14.5
If several stations are going to use the same equipment, we can activate them at the station list (List button
at the toolbar on the left) and load common TRX from menu Objects/Load TRX…
One last option to generate a network when no existing site is available is to deploy a cellular network on
the land. This is very easy with ICS Telecom with menu Tools/Cells…
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Using button […] standard TRX parameters can be set for the new stations. Later ICS Telecom can remove
unnecessary stations.
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Now that we have a network proposal on the map, launching a calculation of the coverage will be a matter
of one single click. But some rx global parameters will be of special interest in order to get useful displays of
These rx parameters are related with the necessary field strength at the user location in order to guarantee
DVB-H standards establish these minimum levels or thresholds depending on the service class, rx antenna
gain, C/N and additional margins (location probability and height loss, this latter when using ITU-R P.1546
propagation model).
‘WP_DVBH-planning_ICStelecom.pdf’.
its location.
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When more than one threshold is to be displayed at the coverage footprint we can use a user palette at
Tools/User palette… where we will specify what colours and what field strength received we want to display:
Finally coverage calculation can be launched for one single station (click on the station, select its name and
already defined:
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(We can stop coverage calculation at any moment with ESC key.)
Right at this point it is really suggested to save your network. This will save all stations with their location,
technical parameters and coverage in one single file with extension EWF. Go to Files/Save/Save network file
EWF…
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Once coverage has been calculated, we can display it in many ways whenever we want and in a matter of
less than one second. Just activate the stations to be involved in the display and open menu
Coverage/Network analysis…
.- Best server: on each pixel a colour associated to the base station transmitting the strongest field
.- Site overlapping: every pixel having more than one server (stations transmitting a field strength above
threshold on a pixel) is displayed in pink (code 255). All other display best server.
.- Simultaneous coverage: on each pixel a colour is associated to the number of servers available.
Further than these analysis, some useful functions from the engineering point of view will make possible
best sites selection, new sites searching and any combination of analysis to reach more complex analyse
Best stations can be selected automatically by ICS Telecom right after import and coverage calculation of
all potential sites. Function Coverage/Best stations/Global coverage selection… asks for a selection of clutter
codes to cover and a target of percentage covered. Then ICS Telecom will switch off all unnecessary stations
On this example only buildings (code 9) are to be covered in a 90%. The starting network comprises 59
base stations covering 99% of code 9. The resulting network comprises only 14 base stations:
New site searching is easy as specifying what area to cover. That area can be drawn with polygon tool at
the toolbar on the left. Click on the tool, select draw mask, click on all vertex of the polygon and right click
to close the polygon, choose save mask if you plan to use this polygon in the future again, select ‘continue’
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Then click on all clutter codes to cover inside the polygon, choose new base station to be
inside/outside/both the polygon, select antenna height for users (source) and base stations (destination),
and chose how to analyse visibility from base stations to users: only LOS (uncheck ‘field strength
As a result, a map with colour will inform about how much of the inner area of the polygon is seen from all
pixels around, given as a percentage of visibility. This analyse is done checking the visibility all around from
test point distributed inside the polygon in a uniform fashion. These points are virtual users and the higher
the number the more accurate the visibility maps (100-200 is suggested when LOS analysed). This number
Visibility map: best sites will be those on red areas (visibility on 60% and more).
A visibility map can be saved for future use: Files/save/save coverage file (FLD).
A combination of analysis will be useful for example searching for a gap filler that behaves as a repeater of
an existing signal on another area. In this case we must check where we have good signal to repeat
+ =
x = rx threshold
y = 0 (nothing to display)
Only where coverage is good, visibility map will be displayed thus making sure we accomplish both
requirements: good coverage and good visibility for the future gap filler.
If only areas with visibility better than 60% must be displayed at this stage use function Map/Filter/General
In addition to these basic functions ICS Telecom offers the possibility of running automatic Gap Filler
Previously activated out existing network, once at this menu we must specify what clutter codes to cover,
what clutter codes base stations will lay on, maximum number of stations to deploy, minimum distance and
technical parameters.
Once a network accomplishes coverage target it is time to make sure frequency usage is efficient and agrees
with other existing networks. This can be completely automatic with ICS Telecom. On one side we have our
own network, with its already known coverage and a set of available frequencies. We will share these
frequencies in order not to spoil our own coverage. On the other side we may have other networks on the
interfere or be interfered by
those networks.
enough: Coverage/Network
assignment…
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.- Activate all stations belonging to the network that is going to be assigned frequencies (MFN, SFN or a
.- Deactivate stations belonging to other networks which are not going to be modified. Coverage also must
.- On the left of the menu we must select existing frequencies that given as a band (min. carrier, max.
carrier and between carriers), a list or a frequency plan. A frequency plan is created as an Excel sheet and
imported via Database/other databases/Frequency plan… We can have many frequency plans. Next each
station is linked to its corresponding frequency plan from General tab at technical parameters. At the
frequency plan available and not available frequencies are indicated by mean of ‘flags’.
.- On the right of the menu we must select assignment rules: carrier separation on the same stations/site,
try to reuse carriers regarding distance/coverage size, C/I, rx antenna pattern, etc.
.- When planning one or more SFN networks, check option Assign same frequency when same Network ID,
and make sure all stations belonging to the same SFN have the same Network ID in General tab at stations
technical parameters.
Then just clicking on START, ICS Telecom will run the assignment and after a few minutes or just seconds
Frequency assignment is quite fast, so you can afford checking several assignments with different rules and
available frequencies looking for the most efficient solutions. Regarding frequency assignment there is not
one single solution but several very similar and satisfactory solutions. This set of solutions will be smaller the
Right after a network has been assigned frequencies we must measure the efficiency of that assignment
analysing how much of the initial service surface of the network will be wasted because of the interferences.
DVB-H stations will be a part of large Multiple Frequency Networks or small Single Frequency
Networks. Thus ICS Telecom will analyse both roles of any base
will specify what is the minimum C/I necessary for a good service and
mode… At this menu we must specify only two basic parameters: who
Best server (all servers at HO* areas) -> Interference on serving cell
*HO = HandOver
C/I Mask:
C/I Tables means that stations labelled as DVB at their technical parameters (Signal = DVB8MHz, etc.) will
After clicking on Start, ICS Telecom will display a best server map where interfered areas are codified with
Interference on best server map before and after frequency assignment (6 freq. for 8 stations)
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IRF mode can be found at Coverage/Network interference/IRF mode… Again only two basic parameters
must be specified at this menu. First, on the left, the kind of map to display is selected: C/I, C/N+I, Best
server, etc.; second, on the right, how far signal received co-channel and/or adjacent channel is rejected,
C/I map and Best Server map (interfered areas have been removed from coverage display)
Whenever several stations belong to the same SFN, they are using the same frequency but we do not regard
them as interfering each other. On those stations we cannot apply these classical rules of C/I. In this case,
all previous menus can be used but applying an exception not to consider interferences when several base
stations have the same Network ID or Group. This option is found at menu Files/Preferences -> Interference
restriction:
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SFN interferences can be analysed for any set of stations isolated and belonging to the same SFN. At this
point come to menu Coverage/Network interference/Digital SFN (COFDM). Then set DVB-H parameters like
Guard Interval and Useful Symbol duration and ICS Telecom will display C/I or Best server maps (like done
SFN C/I map and best server map (interfered areas in pink)
Whenever, once an interference map has been displayed, we want to know what is going on at any pixel on
the map we can use tool WAY (bottom of the toolbar on the left). Both options MFN and SFN are available.
If MFN is chosen, then C/I minimums must be specified. If SFN is chosen, then Guard interval and Useful
Then clicking on any point of the map a little report shows received signal, interfered one and interferers list:
Population coverage analysis is based on one single layer (known as IC2 file) that divides the area of the
project in administrative regions: municipalities, districts, post codes or any other available division of
interest. Attached to this file, an Excel sheet (CSV file) informs about each region: name, codes, population,
surface, traffic demand, etc. ICS Telecom will recognise each region by a unique code we call IC2 index.
These two files are loaded from menu Options/Area covered/Area files setup:
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Once population is known, the existing network can be analysed in order to know what is the covered
population just analysing how much of each region (percentage) is covered. In addition, not only a uniform
or linear distribution of inhabitants along each region can be regarded, but making use of clutter layer that is
telling us where urban areas are and where open land is we can consider what is the percentage of
coverage on the region is corresponding to: inhabited or not areas of different density.
Just display your network coverage and open menu Options/Area covered/Coverage… Input linear or clutter
distribution and if clutter input percentage of population per clutter class. Then input your service threshold
One single station coverage and regions covered (at least 1%). Colours mean percentage covered.
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One of the most important advantages of DVB-H is its possibility of sharing resources with a 3G network in
order to add an uplink for the user and provide several ways of feedback for the broadcasters. This will
make DVB-H services much more interesting from the commercial point of view: interactive advertising,
viewer statistics, broadcasting plus internet surfing on the same handheld, etc. This is what we call Triple
Play.
From the engineering point of view, it will only be a matter of planning two independent 3G and DVB-H
networks, but in the end it will be necessary to report where in a DVB-H network, triple play service will be
available. This is a matter of combining DVB-H coverage and 3G coverage of an existing cellular network.
Just to make an example of the multi-technology capacities of ICS Telecom we will see a single function that
provides this solution: Coverage/Network interference/C/I mode -> Interference Network ID.
This function, as we have seen before, analyses availability of at least one signal from each Network ID on
the project (even regarding C/I) and will display all those areas where all networks signals (DVB-H and 3G
•DVB-H •3G
•Triple Play
On the same area we have 2 DVB-H signals (on the left) and several cellular signals (on the right). The
display for Triple play shows where both services are available (green) and where only one is given (blue).