Universal broadband broadcasting

• US 8,989,021 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2011
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Company KG
• Original Assignee: Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Company KG
• Inventors: Simon, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Andrews, Hoyet H
• Application Number:
  US13/313,417
• Publication Number:
  US 20120188878A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,203 Days
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

A universal broadband broadcasting service is provided. A spectrum-sharing database stores attributes associated with a shared spectrum, a policy controller controls access to the shared spectrum by broadcast service entities, and a gateway receives IP multicast traffic from the broadcast service entities and communicates the IP multicast traffic to a broadcast single frequency network.

Claims

1. A system for providing broadband broadcast sharing, comprising:

a spectrum-sharing database operable to store attributes associated with a shared spectrum;

a policy controller operable to control access to the shared spectrum by a plurality of broadcast service entities; and

a gateway operable to receive IP multicast traffic from the plurality of broadcast service entities and to communicate the IP multicast traffic to a broadcast single frequency network,

wherein the policy controller controls access to the spectrum based on a service level agreement between the broadcast service entities,

wherein the broadcast single frequency network uses multiple transmit antennas with vertical beam tilt, and

wherein the plurality of broadcast service entities are local television broadcast stations and wireless networks using the broadcast single frequency network as a shared point-to-multipoint broadcast infrastructure.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the policy controller is in communication with a policy charging enforcement function entity, and controls access to the shared spectrum based on a request from the policy charging enforcement function entity to use a portion of the shared spectrum.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the policy controller stores instructions which when executed by a processor of the policy controller cause the policy controller to control access to the shared spectrum by the plurality of broadcast service entities.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the gateway is further operable to aggregate the IP multicast traffic from the plurality of broadcast service entities to generate an aggregated IP multicast stream, and insert timing information into the aggregated IP multicast stream to cause modulators in a broadcast single frequency network to become synchronized.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the policy controller controls access to the spectrum based on at least one of a predetermined policy and government regulation.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the attributes stored in the spectrum-sharing database include at least one frequency band over a geographical area and at least one transmission parameter corresponding to the geographical area.

7. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an on-line charging unit in communication with the policy controller, the on-line charging unit operable to monitor usage of the shared spectrum by at least one broadcast service entity and to communicate the usage to a billing system.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the gateway is further operable to perform deep packet inspection and monitor the IP multicast traffic from each broadcast service entity and communicate corresponding usage data to the policy controller.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the spectrum-sharing database is further operable to store frequency re-use data and wherein the policy controller mitigates inter-market interference by using the frequency re-use data.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the frequency re-use data includes frequency bands corresponding to respective geographic areas, which when processed by the policy controller, controls the allocation of frequency use between geographic areas.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein broadcast service entities include at least one of a mobile broadcast service entities and a fixed broadcast service entities.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the mobile broadcast service entities use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and the fixed broadcast service entities use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM).

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions, the sequences of instructions including instructions which when executed by a computer system causes the computer system to perform:

storing, on a spectrum-sharing database, attributes associated with a shared spectrum;

controlling access to the shared spectrum by a plurality of broadcast service entities;

receiving IP multicast traffic from the plurality of broadcast service entities;

communicating the IP multicast traffic to a broadcast single frequency network; and

controlling access to the shared spectrum by the plurality of broadcast service entities based on a service level agreement between the broadcast service entities,

wherein the broadcast single frequency network uses multiple transmit antennas with vertical beam tilt, and

wherein the plurality of broadcast service entities are local television broadcast stations and wireless networks using the broadcast single frequency network as a shared point-to-multipoint broadcast infrastructure.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to perform:

controlling access to the shared spectrum based on a request from a policy charging enforcement function entity to use a portion of the shared spectrum.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to perform:

aggregating the IP multicast traffic from the plurality of broadcast service entities to generate an aggregated IP multicast stream; and

inserting timing information into the aggregated IP multicast stream to cause modulators in a broadcast single frequency network to become synchronized.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to perform:

controlling access to the spectrum based on at least one of a predetermined policy and government regulation.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the attributes stored in the spectrum-sharing database include at least one frequency band over a geographical area and at least one transmission parameter corresponding to the geographical area.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to perform:

monitoring usage of the shared spectrum by at least one broadcast service entity; and

communicating the usage to a billing system.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to perform:

deep packet inspection and monitoring of the IP multicast traffic from each broadcast service entity; and

communicating corresponding usage data to a policy controller.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to perform:

storing frequency re-use data; and

mitigating inter-market interference by using the frequency re-use data.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the frequency re-use data includes frequency bands corresponding to respective geographic areas.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein broadcast service entities include at least one of a mobile broadcast service entities and a fixed broadcast service entities.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the mobile broadcast service entities use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and the fixed broadcast service entities use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM).