Repair costs of the IPDC/DVB-H file repair mechanism

IP datacast (IPDC) based on digital video broadcasting-handhelds (DVB-H) is one of several technology candidates for mobile television. Besides the broadcasting of audio and video streams, IPDC/DVB-H also offers the distribution of arbitrary binary data objects. This paper examines the IPDC/DVB-H specific file repair mechanism, which deals with the correction of erroneous fragments of transmitted data objects, and gives recommendations for providers concerning the setting of several transmission parameters to achieve minimal file repair costs. For this purpose, a simulation framework which integrates all relevant models and mechanisms including a state-of-the-art error model for the transmission channel has been designed and implemented. Based on the setting of different parameters such as error correction and the length of encoding symbols, comparisons of resulting financial costs of different file repair strategies have been accomplished.