IBOC TECHNOLOGY

PRESENTED BY,MARIA JOSEPH

CONTENTS

Introduction Why Digital Radio? Eureka 147 Benefits of DAB What is IBOC IBOC modes of operation Block diagram IBOC implementation Techniques

INTRODUCTION

Digital radio, also called digital audio broadcasting (DAB), is transmission and reception of radio signals in the digital domain, as opposed to the traditional analogue transmission/reception by AM and FM systems.

Digital radio is similar to hooking up the digital output from a CD player directly to a radio transmitter. At the other end is a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC), which converts the digital signal back into analogue mode so that it can be heard on the audio system as it was recorded.

In practice, the CD player is hooked up to a control board, which, in turn, routes the signal as part of the feed to the radio station’s transmitter.

The signal is either impressed onto a signal carrier and transmitted via uplink to a satellite or transmitted across the land.

In both the cases, the signal is received and converted into analogue by a specialized DAC within the radio’s tuner circuit.

Currently, digital radio broadcasts are available in select countries, including the UK , Germany and Canada.

Why Digital Radio?

The main advantage of digital radio is that it doesn’t have the usual distortion associated with analogue radio such as hissing, popping and phasing.

It is immune to distortion from multipath, adjacent stations, overly weak or overly strong signals can carry text information.

User get a new array of data-rich services including traffic information, sports score and weather updates, stock prices, etc..

The data is displayed on the LCD in the form of text, images and video. Thus multimedia radio becomes reality.

Contd…

To explain, in analogue radio, a large number of radio signals can exist in the atmosphere at any time. However each of them is being transmitted on a different radio frequency. Stations that share the same radio frequency are usually far apart so that they don’t interface with each other. In order to receive a station within its transmission range, all we have to do is tune the receiver to its frequency.

The drawback of this analogue mode is that the signals in close proximity in terms of frequency can interfere with each other to some extent, depending on the modulation pattern of the radio station and the ability of the radio receiver to reject interfering adjacent signals.

Eureka 147: The digital radio system in use Uses at much higher frequencies than standard

88-108Mhz FM band and 0.525-1.705MHz AM band.

UK utilises Band III (174-240 MHz) Canada uses L-Band (1452-1492MHz) The eureka system broadcasts multiple stations

and services over a single frequency in something called a multiplex.

The bandwidth within the multiplex is allotted to stations as needed.

Stereo programming is typically broadcast at 192kilobits.

Benefits of Digital Audio Broadcasting High quality digital audio Rugged, reliable delivery to fixed, portable

and mobile receivers for interference-free reception.

Efficient use of the limited radio frequency spectrum available.

Easy to use receivers. Flexibility and choice of programmes for

listeners. Added-value system features such as RDS and

multimedia.

What is IBOC?

In-band on -channel (IBOC) is a hybrid method of transmitting digital radio and analog radio broadcast signals simultaneously on the same frequency.

IBOC: a new system

The IBOC technology allows digital audio broadcasting without the need for new spectrum allocations for the digital signal.

The IBOC system will be compatible with existing tuners as it utilizes the existing AM and FM bands by attaching a digital side band signal to the standard analogue signal.

For digital compression, the IBOC uses a perceptual audio coder (PAC) developed by Lucent Technology.

The USADR AM IBOC DAB system basically comprises the codec, forward error correction(FEC) coding, and interleaving section, modem and blender.

IBOC modes of operation

Hybrid mode : In this mode the digital signal isinserted within a 69.041 kHzbandwidth, 129.361 kHz oneither side of the analog FM signal. Each sideband is approximately 23 dB below thetotal power in the FM signal.

Extended hybrid mode :This mode includes the hybrid mode and additional digital signals are inserted closer to the analog signal, utilizing a 227.617 kHz bandwidth, 101.744 kHz on either side of the analog FM signal. The total power of the digital sidebands is 20 Db below thenominal power of the FM analog carrier with powerrelative to totalanalog FM power of -41.39 dB/kHz.

All Digital mode: This mode replaces the analog signal with additional digital signals and also includes the digital signals of the Hybrid and Extended Hybrid Modes. The total power of the digital sidebands is 10dB below the nominal power of the replaced FM analog carrier with power relative to the total analogFM power of -31.39 dB/kHz.

Block diagram of the IBOC DAB transmitter

IBOC implementation Technique The requirement for FM-to-IBOC isolation is also

somewhat difficult to achieve in practice because of the power ratio between FM and IBOC(100:1). In a combiner that has to deal with a 1:1 power combining ratio, a 26 dB isolation seems to be fine. With IBOC, a 1kW FM signal would be combined with a 10W IBOC signal. With the same 26dB isolation the 10 W IBOC transmitter would receive 2.5 W of reflected power from the FM host, so an isolation figure in he 40dB range would be required for such applications.There are a few techniques used to combine FM and IBOC signals.

Low Level Combining Option

High Level Combining Option

IBOC Power Requirements