Performance degradation due to antenna impedance variability in DVB-H consumer devices

The quality of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handheld) signals in a consumer receiver is usually analyzed by means of the BER (Bit Error Rate). This measure has been studied from a mobile channel perspective, and different signal processing algorithms have been proposed to mitigate its degradation. However, the effects of the hardware at the receiver are also important. The antenna can cause some degradation due to variations in field magnitudes, like the radiation pattern, but also in circuit magnitudes, as mismatching. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to evaluate the degradation on the BER due to consumer equipment effects which cause certain variability in the antenna impedance and consequently in the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). We also evaluate the theoretical improvement when a mitigation circuit (an ideal Antenna Tuning Unit) is included in the DVB-H receiver design.