A quality of service view of digital television network distribution

An extensive programme has been carried out over four years to understand the nature of digital network impairments and the effect of these on broadcast quality television signals. This study can be broken down into several key areas: precise monitoring and analysis of network performance; investigation of current television codecs and their vulnerability/resilience to digital impairments; evolving quality of service standards for network performance and recommendations for future codec development; and development of equipment to enable quality of service targets to be monitored in-service. The paper describes the above mentioned areas in detail and looks at future work planned to further enhance the digital distribution of broadcast television in the United Kingdom