System design for broadband digital radio broadcasting

In this article, we present an in-band onchannel (IBOC) broadcasting system suitable for digital audio and data broadcasting in FM and AM channels. The new design synergistically integrates frequency hopping, LDPC coding, hierarchical modulation, and band aggregation techniques to increase the data rate, improve spectrum efficiency, and at the same time provide the spectrum flexibility necessary in highquality audio and multimedia services. A prototype has been developed on a personal computer-based software defined radio platform. Numerical results and initial laboratory tests demonstrate the significant performance advantages of the new system design.