Implementation and field test of a new channel estimation technique for DVB-T system

The European standard for digital terrestrial transmission, DVB-T, has been designed for fixed, portable and mobile reception. This versatility is due in part to coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM). OFDM can provide large data rates with sufficient robustness to radio channel impairments. During the deployment of terrestrial DTV broadcasting systems, very often the channel characteristics have to be captured for DTV coverage studies, reception problem diagnosis and service planning. The software implementation of a new channel characterization technique using a frequency domain pilot time domain correlation (FPTC) method for DVB-T systems is presented. This technique exploits the pilot sequence embedded in the DVB-T signal, which is derived from the frequency domain pilots and known to the receiver. The major advantages of this proposal, compared to other DTV channel characterization techniques, are its wide amplitude dynamic range, robustness to frequency synchronization errors, and avoidance of interruptions to the broadcasting service.