Proposal of Community Alarm Systems over Digital Terrestrial Television based on ISDB-T Standard: A Case Study of Ecuador

This article proposes the implementation of two Community Alarm System using the ISDB-T standard. The first model takes advantage of the current bidirectionality of the Digital Terrestrial Television system and uses the existing interactivity of the system to generate alerts in case of emergency. The second model proposes developing an interactivity channel based on TV White Spaces destined only for alert signals transmission. In both cases, the transmitted information frame contains a specific identifier depending on the type of alert and the exact geographical location where it was tried. The identifier is created based on the existing administrative distribution in the Secretaría Nacional de Gestión de Riesgos y Emergencias (SNGRE) and in the ISDB-T standard. This proposal arises as an alternative to the acceleration of the analog shutdown and as a projection to take advantage of the use of DTT infrastructure. The proposed models allows a decentralized and immediate administration depending on the type of alert generated, improving the response by the agencies in charge of taking care of security. Both models are evaluated in function of theoretical advantages and disadvantage.