Satellite Digital Multimedia

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (SDMB) system, as studied within the European IST integrated project MAESTRO. The SDMB takes advantage of the satellite inherent capability to provide broadcast services over global coverage, to constitute an efficient way to serve mobile multimedia contents to a potentially unlimited audience. The paper includes an introduction to mobile multimedia markets and explains how the broadcast will help the mobile operators to serve the mass market. The main part of the paper is devoted to SDMB system description: services and delivery methods are first presented; then an example coverage for an European system is described. The key point of the low cost impact on the 3G mobile phone is justified, as well as the way the SDMB system interfaces with the mobile terrestrial networks. Later on, techniques to enhance the distribution reliability and capacity are pointed out. At the end, services personalisation, security aspects and the ...