The DVB Steering Board, an industry-led association comprised of broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators and regulatory bodies in more than 35 countries committed to creating technical standards for the telecommunications industry, has approved a new unified Carrier ID standard in a move designed to reduce radio frequency interference caused by operational errors at satellite uplinks.
The standard was ratified at the 73rd Meeting of the DVB Steering Board and will be submitted to the European Communications Standards Institute (ETSI) for formal standardization in the near future.
According to a statement released by the DVB Steering Board, the new Carrier ID standard will enable operators and users to identify and respond to RFI more quickly to minimize the duration of interference, lower operating costs and improve quality of service.
“Carrier ID will be of particular benefit where there are RFI problems related to occasional-use satellite transmissions and temporary feeder links, often caused by failed equipment or by an improperly configured system due to human error,” Peter Siebert, executive director of DVB, said.
As part of the new standard, at minimum each transmission will be required to include the media access control (MAC address) of the equipment being used and the Carrier ID format version. Transmitting additional information, such as uplinker name and contact information, is optional; a common database containing Carrier ID codes and contact details of uplink operators will be created and made accessible to all satellite operators and other authorized personnel.
However, establishing the standard is only part of the battle. The real success of the standard will depend on customer demand, Lisa Hobbs, head of broadcast compression solutions for Ericsson, told Satellite Today.
“You can develop all the standards you want, but once it requires real development effort to implement, there has to be a demand from the customer base for the manufacturers to comply. That’s still what we are missing—the drive for this is coming from the operators, but they are not necessarily the ones buying the equipment. We need the end users to start asking for it,” she said.
