Field Trials for Evaluating Advanced Digital Terrestrial MIMO TV Broadcasting System

The transmission performance of open-loop spatial multiplexing cross-polarized MIMO is being studied to determine how to increase the capacity of terrestrial broadcasting and make it more robust. The authors evaluated the performance by large-scale field experiments in central Tokyo in two scenarios. Results showed that when the transmission capacity is increased by MIMO using transmission parameters with the same robustness as SISO, although the degradation in the required received power from the laboratory tests is increased by about 0.5 dB, the transmission capacity can be doubled. We confirmed that the required received power can be improved by 9.1 dB when MIMO is introduced to enhance transmission robustness, i.e., maintaining the same transmission capacity as SISO. The field trials were performed using a transmission system for next-generation terrestrial broadcasting being studied in Japan, but it also shows promise for wireless communication systems that introduce MIMO into the HPHT network using the UHF band in urban areas.