Analysis of the Network Gains of SISO and MISO Single Frequency Network Broadcast Systems

The second generation digital terrestrial broadcasting system (DVB-T2) is the first broadcasting system employing MISO (Multiple-Input Single-Output) algorithms. The potential MISO gain of this system has been roughly predicted through simulations and field tests. Of course, the potential MISO SFN gain (MISO-SFNG) differs according to the simulation conditions, test methods, and measurement environments. In this paper, network gains of SISO-SFN and MISO-SFN are theoretically derived. Such network gains are also analyzed with respect to the receive power imbalance and coverage distances of SISO and MISO SFN. From the analysis, it is proven that MISO-SFNG is always larger than SISO SFN gain (SISO-SFNG) in terms of the achievable SNR. Further, both MISO-SFNG and SISO-SFNG depend on the power imbalance, but the network gains are constant regardless of the modulation order. Once the field strength of the complete SFN is obtained by coverage planning tools or field measurements, the SFN service coverage can be precisely calibrated by applying the closed-form SFNG formula.