DPC-Based Hierarchical Broadcasting: Design and Implementation

This paper discusses interference precancellation in digital hierarchical broadcasting (HB). In particular, we present the principles and implementation of structured dirty paper coding (SDPC) that approaches the capacity limit of dirty paper coding in multilayer broadcasting. As an alternative to Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP), SDPC eliminates the significant performance loss suffered by THP in the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime due to the modulo operation. The key idea behind the SDPC scheme is the exploitation of the modulation structure of interference, thereby simplifying the demodulation process in hierarchical reception. We exemplify the SDPC technique by implementing an SDPC-based HB system on a real-time test bed. The experimental results show that SDPC delivers the performance of ldquosuperposition coding with successive interference cancellationrdquo without extra computation or memory requirements at the receiver side.