Performance Analysis of W-band Satellite HDTV Broadcasting

The main purpose of this work is to study the possibility of exploiting in an efficient way the large bandwidth availability of W-band (75 - 110 GHz) in order to provide an high quality HDTV broadcast service. To achieve this, we developed a simulation model of the system, following the DVB-S2 standard specifications and introducing the typical W-band impairments such as phase noise, rain attenuation and non-linearities. Furthermore, we considered a series of encoding tests on different HD sequences in order to evaluate the H.264 video quality as a function of the available bit-rate on the channel, therefore considering different scenarios involving adaptive techniques like ACM (Adaptive Coding and Modulation) and scalable video coding (SVC). Finally we evaluate the obtained results with a view to future broadcasting services in the EHF domain. Simulation results evidenced the suitability of W-band to efficiently support a top-quality HDTV service with an increased number of available channels compared to DVB-S2 standard using Ku and Ka band. The large bandwidth availability should also allow to increase the system flexibility in the management of the tradeoff between spectral efficiency and video quality.