Power Measurement in DVB-T Systems: On the Suitability of Parametric Spectral Estimation in DSP-Based Meters

The first results related to a wider research program, aimed at the realization of a DSP-based meter, mainly devoted to performance assessment and large scale monitoring of DVB-T systems and apparatuses, are presented. Satisfying repeatability, reduced measurement time (fast measurement rate) and cost effectiveness are, in particular, pursued. The paper mainly focuses on the digital signal processing algorithm for power measurement of DVB-T signals, to be implemented in the meter. The attention is paid to parametric PSD estimators because of their reduced memory requirement and potentially limited computational burden. A suitable stage, in simulation environment, is first designed and applied in order to optimally regulate major parameters of the estimators. A number of experiments on emulated DVB-T signals are then conducted, the results of which highlight the efficacy of the proposed algorithm with respect to alternative nonparametric solutions. Main reasons justifying the use of parametric estimators in a cost-effective meter are finally given and discussed.