Spatially Scalable HEVC for Layered Division Multiplexing in Broadcast

Recent broadcast standards support Layered Division Multiplexing (LDM) to achieve graceful degradation as signal quality degrades at the receiver. LDM is accomplished by using different constellations within the same Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum. LDM thus enables delivering multiple service tiers in a single broadcast channel. LDM when used in conjunction with scalable source coding codecs such as the Scalable extension of High Efficiency Video Coding (SHVC), further helps improve overall spectrum utilization and efficiency. In this paper we investigate a 2-tier broadcast LDM based service with one service tier aimed at lower video resolution such as 540p, 720p, 1080p for a mobile receiver (smaller/indoor antenna) and the other service tier targeting twice the video resolution of the lower tier, for stationary receivers (larger/outdoor antenna). The primary contribution of this paper is to identify 2-tier transmission configurations of interest to broadcasters and compare the spectrum and bitrate coding efficiency gains of an SHVC-based multi-tier service versus a simulcast (single layer) based multi-tier service for an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 transmission system. Bitrate savings ranging from 38% and 57% is observed for the SHVC based layered system. For large coverage and pedestrian with a receiver test scenarios, channel utilization savings ranging from 23% to 46% is observed. For mobile and tablet in bedroom scenarios a smaller broadcast bandwidth savings ranging from 6% to 9% is observed.