ATSC 3.0 and Wireless Emergency Alerting - a Great Match - $15
Date: April 3, 2024Topics: 2024 BEITC Proceedings, Applications of ATSC 3.0 TechnologyWhen disasters strike, it is imperative that lines of communication remain open so that the public can receive important and potentially lifesaving updates from authorized authorities. For television and radio broadcasters this information has been provided by Emergency Alert System (EAS) announcements and through newscasts and weather alerts. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) were developed to deliver similar announcements to the public via cellular networks if they are within the targeted area. But what happens if cellular service is compromised due to disaster? In 2017 the Federal Communications adopted a new, voluntary television broadcast standard developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), a standard development organization. The new standard, ATSC 3.0 (also known as NEXTGEN TV), is built on a robust over-the-air broadcast platform and utilizes an Internet Protocol core.i Could ATSC 3.0 be a solution during widespread outages to deliver critical messages to mobile devices? This paper explores this issue and will describe a tested solution.
Fred Engel | PBS North Carolina | Research Triangle Park, N.C., United States
Chris Lamb | Device Solutions Inc. | Morrisville, N.C., United States
ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) Seminar Outcomes – Humber College B²C Lab, Toronto, Canada - $15
Date: April 3, 2024Topics: 2024 BEITC Proceedings, BPS as the Complementary PNT SolutionThe realization that the ATSC 3.0 standard enables broadcasters to offer an independent source of standard time, distinct from and equivalent to GPS/GNSS, and traceable to UTC time, has led to the formation of a forum within ATSC and NAB, and has attracted individuals, industry, and government organizations, who feel that development of appropriate technologies within ATSC 3.0 should proceed with no delays. The urgency is caused by many concerns with the current vulnerabilities of the GPS system. Providing a backup is in the minds of many, given that competitor countries have already built backup capability in their systems and at the same time have good knowledge of the weaknesses of GPS. In this paper, a gathering of such a wide forum is described, which took place in Toronto, Canada in November 2023, in the form of a one-day conference. The theme of the conference was the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS), proposed by the broadcasting community as an alternative to GPS in case GPS service is lost. The main points made by participants in this conference are presented here, and its potential impact on innovation directions for industry and academia are evaluated. In addition, the potential impact of this forum on Canadian policy is assessed.
Vatsa Dave | Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning | Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Georges Livanos | Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning | Toronto, Ontario, Canada
ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) Mesh Network - $15
Date: April 3, 2024Topics: 2024 BEITC Proceedings, BPS as the Complementary PNT SolutionThe Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) concept and related proof-of-concept technologies were introduced at the 2023 NAB Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology (BEIT) conference. Work on the BPS project has continued through 2023 and into 2024 with a focus on better accuracy and traceability but also on how such a system would be put into operation across one or more regions. This paper describes the design of a BPS transmitter mesh network that would allow nationwide time synchronization based entirely on ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. This network could also be used to obtain position information for devices receiving three or more BPS broadcasts. To accomplish this design, the proof-of-concept implementations presented at the 2023 NAB BEIT Conference were redesigned to meet the needs of this mesh network. The paper will describe the overall architecture and equipment needed to allow such a mesh network to be implemented. A nationwide monitoring system necessary to manage the mesh network will also be discussed. Finally, the paper will suggest areas of design and development needed before such a system could be realized.
Mark Corl | Triveni Digital, Inc. | Princeton, N.J., United States
Vladimir Anishchenko | Avateq Corp. | Markham, Ontario, Canada
Francisco Girela Lopez | Safran Electronics and Defense | Rochester, N.Y., United States
Tariq Mondal | National Association of Broadcasters | Washington, D.C., United States
