A Hybrid DMB-T and WLAN Network for Broadband Wireless Access Services

As the demand for broadband wireless access services grows rapidly, much attention has been paid to integrated communication and broadcast networks (ICBN). ICBN can provide high-rate, on-demand, reliable data and multimedia services while in fast moving. In this paper, we introduce an ICBN system in which DMB-T broadcast network works as the forward link and wireless access networks are used for the return channel respectively. We first differentiate four types of services, including digital TV, video on demand, data download and Internet access. Then the system features are given. Next, we design the system architecture and the three subsystems, including the DMB-T broadcast network, the return channel and the terminal. With the introduction of subnetwork data unit (SNDU), the protocol to transmit data on DMB-T broadcast network is presented. We also stack the functions of the system into different layers in terms of four types of services, and introduce each of them, including signaling messages exchange and ARQ scheme, etc. Then the testbed is briefly introduced. Finally we draw the conclusion.