Using Two-Way Datacasting to Deliver Real-Time Public Safety Information

Datacasting involves the use of the excess bandwidth in a digital terrestrial television station's stream to deliver broadcasted data to a variety of receivers. Initially developed as a stationary fixed technology, this project involves receiving this broadcast in a mobile environment. This one-way transmission allows the datacast receiver to decouple data packets at a rate of up to 2.5 Mbps. Utilizing these data rates, various real-time applications can play a major role in placing information in the field where the existing low-speed data transmission methods in use today cannot. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have already reported in various papers the successes achieved in datacasting in the mobile environment, an implementation that the original developers of datacasting had not intended. The introduction of two-way communication using multiple channels coordinated with datacasting has allowed the datacasting system to achieve real-time, asymmetric broadband communication in the mobile environment that is both cost-effective and viable for delivering critical data to the field in a timely and reliable fashion. This paper explains the technical concepts jointly engineered to deliver the two-way datacasting model, as well as highlights the results of prototype applications and devices installed in a mobile environment. Further, future challenges and enhancements of the technology are highlighted.