Performance of 5th generation 8-VSB receivers

There has been a focused effort within the television broadcast industry to move the DTV receiver technology "state-of-the-art" forward to a better deal with the more difficult and complex receiving environments faced within the TV viewing environment. In this paper, we detail the approach taken which today provides the broadcast industry with a "breakthrough" 8-VSB receiver product that has "cleared the bar" of expected performance for the simple consumer-friendly reception of over-the-air digital television in most complex environments. There have been many field tests and studies performed since the adoption of the 8-VSB ATSC standard. Armed with a more complete understanding of the adverse environments where the prior 8-VSB receivers fell short of providing acceptable reception, it became clear that an architecturally advanced approach was needed. Having new and advanced methods of analyzing the captured RF signals, coupled with new-found capabilities of more accurately defining and applying such "real world" approximations in the realm of software simulation, led to an understanding of many modeled performance capabilities prior to hardware production. A variety of tools allowed the design team to depart from the generally accepted implementations of the past, and to deal in new ways with the infinitely complex array of variable ghost delays and amplitudes required to meet the needs of broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers alike. Affirming the knowledge about the need to deal with known interferences, resulting from an increasingly densely packed RF broadcast television spectrum is also highlighted. Field evaluation data is presented to confirm the conclusions. Providing correlation of results with laboratory simulations and tests with those "real world" conditions in various field trials conducted by multiple parties enables this technology to achieve quick acceptance in the marketplace.