Coverage optimization in single frequency Networks using simulated annealing

In the last years, the migration from analog to digital terrestrial television systems has favored the deployment of Single Frequency Networks (SFN), more efficient from a spectrum point of view, to provide DVB-T services in larger geographical areas through the reuse of frequencies. However, the planning of a SFN is not a trivial task, since the designer must find a trade-off between the quality of service (QoS) required in a geographical area and the overall cost involving the deployment and maintenance of such a network, which depends primarily on the number of transmitters needed and their power. In this work, a simulated annealing (SA) based approach applied to improve the overall coverage in a SFN by optimizing transmitters parameters such as the static delay or the gain and orientation to be applied to the sector antennas, is presented. For this purpose, the approach is divided into three blocks that work as a whole: A) A propagation prediction tool, B) A receiver behavior modeling, including different methods for the FFT window positioning and echoes combination, and C) SA, used to improve the coverage over the desired area according to certain QoS requirements. Results for two SFN are included in order to demonstrate the usefulness of the method.