DVBH

DVB-H, short for Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld, is a standard designed to deliver digital television services to handheld devices over terrestrial networks. Developed by the DVB Project, it extends the DVB-T system to support mobility, broadcast robustness, and efficient power use for portable receivers.

Technically, DVB-H is built on the same COFDM-based physical layer as DVB-T but adds features tailored for mobile reception. The key innovations are time-slicing, which transmits short data bursts that the receiver can wake up for and then sleep between bursts to save battery power, and IP datacasting, which carries IP datagrams in the broadcast stream. Optional forward error correction, such as MPE-FEC, improves resilience to interference and multipath.

Service data are multiplexed into the DVB-H transport stream with service information and guide data so receivers can tune to available channels and programs. The system is designed to support mobility and indoor reception, and to deliver multiple television services, video, and data streams to handheld devices.

Deployment has varied by region. In the late 2000s, several European and Asian markets conducted trials or launched DVB-H services, but many operators later shifted to other mobile-TV solutions or technologies such as DVB-T2-based services and cellular streaming. As a result, DVB-H has become a legacy technology in many markets.

See also: Digital Video Broadcasting, DVB Project, Mobile TV, DVB-T, IP datacasting.