Techniques for ATSC 3.0 broadcast boundary area management using signal quality and packet errors to differentiate between duplicated services on different frequencies during scan

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11848716-B2
Application number	US-202117487753-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2021
Priority date	Aug 6, 2021
Publication date	Dec 19, 2023
Grant date	Dec 19, 2023

Abstract

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. In a boundary region between first and second broadcast stations in which a receiver can pick up signals from both stations, a lower level signaling PLP is used to identify a channel quality metric for identifying the best frequency to receive a broadcast service on which is sent from both stations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A digital television apparatus comprising:
at least one receiver configured to receive digital television from a digital television transmitter system comprising at least first and second broadcast transmitters, the receiver comprising:
at least one processor programmed with instructions to:
scan a frequency spectrum using a lower level signaling (LLS) physical layer pipe (PLP);
use results of the scan by the LLS PLP to identify at least one service duplicated by the first and second broadcast transmitters; and
acquire the service from the first or second broadcast transmitter having a higher quality signal as determined from the scan, wherein the instructions are executable to:
for duplicate services identified, access at least one link mapping table (LMT) pointed to by the LLS PLP to identify additional higher level PLPs that are required to receive a service layer signaling (SLS) table;
identify, using the SLS table, at least one higher level PLP carrying a duplicate service;
enable the at least one higher level PLP carrying the duplicate service;
the at least one higher level PLP comprising a service-based transport session instance description (S-TSID);
based at least in part on information in the S-TSID, identify additional PLPs required to access the duplicate service; and
enable the additional PLPs required to access the duplicate service.

2. The digital television apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the receiver comprises an advanced television systems committee (ATSC) 3.0 receiver.

3. The digital television apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable to automatically tune to the first or second broadcast transmitter based on the quality of the respective signal without user intervention.

4. The digital television apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable to present an audibly or visually perceptive message to tune to the first or second broadcast transmitter.

5. The digital television apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the receiver comprises one and only one tuner.

6. The digital television apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the receiver is not a mobile receiver.

7. The digital television apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the use of the results of the scan by the LLS PLP to identify at least one service duplicated by the first and second broadcast transmitters requires no PLPs other than the LLS PLP.

8. A digital television apparatus comprising:
at least one receiver comprising at least one processor programmed with instructions to configure the processor to:
receive from plural digital television broadcasters information from respective frequencies;
identify at least one service carried by at least first and second frequencies from respective first and second digital television broadcasters;
identify respective first and second quality metrics of the respective first and second frequencies; and
automatically tune to, or present a message to tune to, the first frequency based at least in part on a relationship between the first and second quality metrics,
wherein the instructions are executable to use a first tuner/demodulator to receive a desired service;
use a second tuner/demodulator to scan for duplicate services;
using information from the second tuner/demodulator to determine the relationship between the first and second quality metrics;
responsive to a difference between the first and second quality metrics satisfying a threshold, automatically switch to using the second tuner/demodulator to deliver a demanded service and automatically use the first tuner/demodulator to scan for duplicate services.

9. The digital television apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the receiver comprises an advanced television systems committee (ATSC) 3.0 receiver.

10. The digital television apparatus of claim 8 , wherein identifying at least one service carried by at least first and second frequencies from respective first and second digital television broadcasters comprises scanning a frequency spectrum using a lower level signaling (LLS) physical layer pipe (PLP).

11. The digital television apparatus of claim 10 , wherein identifying respective first and second quality metrics of the respective first and second frequencies is based on results of the scanning using the LLS PLP.

12. The digital television apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the identifying respective first and second quality metrics of the respective first and second frequencies requires no PLPs other than the LLS PLP.

Assignees

• Sony Group Corp

Inventors

• Clift Graham
• Fay Luke
• Candelore Brant
• Goldberg Adam
• Ansfield Fred
• Pineda Loren F

Classifications

• H04B17/309 Primary

  Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters · CPC title

• H04N21/4263

  involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners · CPC title

• H04N21/4384

  involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency · CPC title

• H04N21/4622 Primary

  Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet (web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859) · CPC title

• H04N21/44209

  Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network (arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896) · CPC title