ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the techniques for realizing handovers with time-sliced-based broadcast systems such as Digital Video Broadcasting–Handheld (DVB-H). It shows that with such systems, loss-free handovers are possible with only a single receiver front end. The chapter deals with an overview of handovers in broadcast systems and their critical aspects. Handovers in broadcast systems have to be dealt with differently due to the unidirectional nature of broadcast systems. The network infrastructure, taking care of deciding whether a handover is necessary in mobile communications systems, is not aware of the terminals consuming the transmitted broadcast content or their reception status. Classic analog broadcast networks are exclusively set up using a multifrequency network approach. The terrestrial digital broadcast systems Digital Audio Broadcasting and digital terrestrial television both offer handover mechanisms. Some broadcast systems, such as DVB-H, make use of a time-slice-based transmission. Phase shifting is entirely backwards compatible with the DVB-H specification.
