Flexible and robust packet transport for digital HDTV

The packet-oriented transport approach used in the advanced digital television (ADTV) system for terrestrial HDTV broadcast is described. ADTV achieves robust HDTV delivery on terrestrial simulcast channels via MPEG video compression, prioritization of MPEG data, and `cell-relay´ type packet transport in conjunction with a two-tier physical transmission scheme. General design issues relevant to the development of the proposed transport protocol are discussed. ADTV´s prioritization algorithm for partitioning MPEG-encoded video into high-priority (HP) and standard-priority (SP) bit streams is outlined. The data transport format supporting these prioritized compressed video bit streams is described. The three principal sublayers of the ADTV transport protocol are discussed in terms of specific functions, impact of system performance, and hardware implementation factors. A proof-of-concept simulation model that incorporates transport encoding and decoding functionality is outlined, and performance evaluation results are given for illustrative transmission scenarios