Impact of Low-Frequency Radar Interference on Digital Terrestrial Television

• Published in: IEEE transactions on broadcasting Vol. 59; no. 1; pp. 84 - 95
• Main Authors: Mellios, E., Di Kong, Webb, M., Doufexi, A., Hilton, G. S., Nix, A. R., McGeehan, J. P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.03.2013; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Airborne radar; Antenna radiation patterns; Applied sciences; Broadcasting. Videocommunications. Audiovisual; Digital video broadcasting; Dipole antennas; Equipments and installations; Exact sciences and technology; Interference; interference suppression; OFDM; Radar antennas; Radiocommunications; Radiolocalization and radionavigation; Radiorelay links; Radiowave propagation; ray tracing; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Television; Performance evaluation; Parameter estimation; State of the art; OFDM; Base station; Digital television; Urban area; Waveform generators; Television receiver; Low frequency; Airborne radar; Channel estimation; Ray tracing; Radiation pattern; Localization; Antenna array; interference suppression; Radio link; Radiofrequency; Radiowave propagation; Digital transmission; Radar interference; Frequency characteristic; Signal processing; Radar antennas; Simulator; Digital video broadcasting
• ISSN: 0018-9316; 1557-9611
• DOI: 10.1109/TBC.2012.2232511

This paper considers low-frequency radar cohabitation with digital video broadcasting terrestrial (DVB-T). The spatial and temporal radio frequency propagation characteristics of the terrestrial and air-to-ground channels are modeled using state-of-the-art 3-D ray tracing for real-world broadcast television scenarios. Rooftop DVB-T receivers are assumed at user locations in two different urban environments, namely, the cities of London and Bristol, U.K.. The propagation characteristics are combined with appropriately orientated 3-D antenna radiation patterns, which include full polarization information for the DVB-T rooftop antennas, the base-station antennas, and the airborne radar antennas. A radar waveform generator is used to synthesize a representative range of radar signals. A DVB-T physical layer simulator has been developed to predict the performance of the received broadcast stream at each rooftop location. Factors, such as additive noise, the power and structure of the wanted DVB-T and the interfering radar signals, and the nature of the radio channels, are shown to influence the DVB-T bit error rate results. Statistics for the probability of high-quality DVB-T reception are reported as a function of the modulation scheme, propagation environment, aircraft orientation, radar antenna array configuration, and radar waveform type.