From the Presidentbts.ieee.org/images/files/newsletters/spring08.pdf · 2016. 1. 28. · Spring, 2009 January 20, 2009 IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter (ISSN 1067-490X)

IEEE

From the PresidentWilliam T. Hayes, President, IEEE Broadcast Society

Greetings BTS mem-bers. I have justreturned from twovery successful andenjoyable trips. Thefirst was to LasVegas, NV for theannual ConsumerElectronics Show

and the second was to Washington Stateto visit my grandson and daughter andto attend my son-in-law’s graduationfrom the police academy tp become aShohomish County Sheriff. Now while Iwould much rather talk about my Wash-ington trip and share all of the pictures,I probably ought to talk a little bit aboutthe CES and what I saw there.

For those who have never had theopportunity to attend CES, it is without a

doubt the single most amazing toy showanywhere. And I don’t mean to lessenthe importance or value of the show,completely the opposite, it is a place tosee and experience virtually every newtechnology and product that consumerswill be looking at in the near future.There are herds of little robotic vacuumsdemonstrating how well they can cleana floor. There is a section of the floorthat could actually deafen you as youwalk through looking at all of the enor-mous car audio systems, many that costmore than the car they are in. There arethe latest and greatest internet readyappliances like refrigerators that monitorwhat’s inside and create and e-mail yourshopping list. This one once again raisesthe question of whether or not the lightactually goes out when you shut the

It has beengratifying to haveseveral of ourmembers tell methat they reallyliked out last issueand that they likethe direction ournewsletter is going.

This would not be possible withoutthe hard work and dedication of ourcontributors and staff so they deservemost of the credit.

As we are heading into springwith the NAB convention approach-ing fast, it is an exciting time forbroadcasting in the U.S. The deadline

for the full transition to digital televi-sion is now just over a year away(less than a year by the time youread this) and the industry is grap-pling with how to make it happen.By February of 2009 several hundredstations will be changing channelsand building complete new transmit-ting facilities while continuing to pro-vide both analog and digital serviceto their viewers.

If that was not enough, theprospect of adding a portable andmobile element to the U.S. televisionstandard are on a fast track. Compet-ing proponents have quickly devel-

The technologies to deliver information and entertainment to audiences worldwide, at home and on the go.

From the EditorWilliam Meintel, BT Newsletter Editor

continued on page 2

ISSN 1067-490X

Volume 16, Number 1, Spring 2008

refrigerator door. There are all kinds ofpersonal music players, cellular phones,personal digital assistants and wirelessinterconnections between them all.

continued on page 2

InsidePlans for 2008 IEEE BTS 58th

Broadcast Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Learn about “Proposed ATSC Mobile/

Handheld Systems” NAB 2008 . . . . . .4

BTS Activities Worldwide . . . . . . . . . .4

Benefits of IEEE Senior Membership

and Newly Elevated BTS Members . .5

Two BTS Members elevated to IEEE

Fellow Grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

BTS Member Profile: Jules Cohen,

IEEE Life Fellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

OTA? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Letter to The Editor-in-Chief, IEEE

Transactions on Broadcasting . . . . . .10

The 6th ITU-T IPTV Focus Group

Meeting Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

The 7th ITU-T IPTV Focus Group

Meeting Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

On Replacing a 30-Year-Old

Temporary Patch in Longley/Rice . . .16

Argentina BTS Chapter Report . . . . .18

Japan BTS Chapter Report . . . . . . . .18

Taipei BTS Chapter Report . . . . . . . . .19

UKRI CEBT Joint Chapter Report . . .19

Mark Your Calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Edward Hobson II, Industry Leader

and Former SMPTE President . . . . . .20

IEEE BTS Organization . . . . . . . . . . . .27

btsNL_spring08.qxd 2/28/08 2:24 PM Page 1

IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter 2 Spring 2008

Newsletter Deadlines

The BTS Newsletter welcomes con-tributions from every member.Please forward materials you wouldlike included to the editor [email protected]. Here areour deadlines for upcoming issues:

Issue Due Date

Summer, 2008 April 20, 2008Fall, 2008 July 20, 2008Winter, 2008 October 20, 2008Spring, 2009 January 20, 2009

IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter (ISSN 1067-490X) is published quar-terly by the Broadcast Technology Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electron-ics Engineers, Inc. Headquarters address: 345 East 47th Street, New York, NY10017-2394. Sent at a cost of $1.00 per year to each member of the Broadcast Tech-nology Society. Printed in USA. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and atadditional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to: IEEE BroadcastTechnology Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855.

© 2008 IEEE. Permission to copy without fee all or part of any material without acopyright notice is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed fordirect commercial advantage and the title for publication and it’s date appear ineach copy. To copy a material with a copyright notice requires special permission.Please direct all inquires or requests to the IEEE Intellectual Property Rights Manag-er, IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855 Tel: +1 732 562 3966,Fax: + 1 732 921 8062, EMAIL: [email protected]

oped hardware with some now readyto begin serious field testing. Thistechnology will also be the subject ofa BTS sponsored tutorial at the NABthis year (See a full description of thetutorial inside this issue). I have heardseveral people voice the opinion thatmobile and handheld will be the“killer app” for broadcasters and overthe next year we will likely see if theycan pull it off.

With all this promising news forbroadcasters there is, as alwaysseems to be the case, some disturb-ing news. The disturbing news isthat once again the U.S. FederalCommunications Commission is test-ing prototype devices that areintended to operate unlicensed inthe television bands. Although suchdevices are not yet authorized, thefact that they are being tested holdsout the prospect that they will some-day be permitted. That prospect rais-es significant concern as to howtheir impact on television receptionwould be regulated and enforced. Inview of that, I invite our readers tocontribute to this debate by provid-ing articles or papers related to thissubject for the newsletter, the BTSIEE Transactions on Broadcasting orthe Fall Symposium.

Speaking of the Fall Symposium,plans are well underway and youwill find a call for papers inside. Iencourage you to contribute yourknowledge for the benefit of yourcolleagues. Also the BTS sponsored

IEEE International Symposium onBroadband Multimedia Systems andBroadcasting starts on March 31st inLas Vegas (see announcementinside). This will be the third yearfor this Symposium and again itpromises to be very informative soplan to attend.

In this issue we are starting what Ihope to be a regular feature whereinwe profile one of our members. Thistime it is our longtime friend and col-league Jules Cohen. I first met Julesmany years ago when I was a youngengineer working in the FCC’s Buffalo,NY field office. At the time Jules was awell established and respected con-sulting engineer representing a clientin a TV cable carriage dispute (I don’trecall what side he was representing)in which the FCC had becomeinvolved. My first impression of Juleswas that in addition to being anextremely competent engineer he wasalso a gentleman. As we have crossedpaths many times over the years since,that initial impression has not

changed. In recent years as I haveserved on the BTS AdCom Jules is reg-ularly present, is always the voice ofreason and the one we look to forguidance when making decisions con-cerning the Society. Please take amoment to read the profile that chron-icles Jules’ long and distinguishedcareer.

Inside you will also find reportsfrom a number of our chapters, arti-cles on BTS members being elevatedto the Senior (including our presidentBill Hays – congratulations Bill) or Fel-low levels, a thought provoking itemfrom Ralph Justus and an interestingarticle, the third in a series, on theLongley-Rice propagation model bySid Shumate.

As always your comments, sugges-tions, criticism and especially yourcontributions are welcome so let mehear from you even if it just to sayyou got this message.

Bill [email protected]

From the Editor continued from page 1

From the President continued from page 1

The breadth and scope of howmuch is on display is staggering sowhen I go, it is with a purpose. Since inmy day job I am the Director of Engi-neering for Iowa Public Television, mypurpose is generally to see what tech-nologies are being rolled out that will

impact how our viewers consume ourcontent. Given the impending shutdown of the analog broadcast service inFebruary of 2009 and the roll out of theUnited States National Telecommunica-tions and Information Administration’sdigital television converter coupon pro-

continued on page 2


Spring 2008 3 IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter

From the President continued from page 2gram, I wanted to see where the manu-facturers were in getting converterboxes qualified for the NTIA programand getting them into stores for con-sumer purchase. I was pleasantly sur-prised to find a large number ofmanufacturers displaying converterboxes and estimating consumer avail-ability in February, 2008. For someonelike me who still believes that broadcasttelevision has a place in digital future,seeing working products is comforting.

There is also an amazing dichotomytaking place in the digital future. Onone end, I attended sessions and sawproducts designed to deliver content toend users anywhere and wheneverthey wanted it. There was no shortageof handheld smart phones that couldreceive service from dedicated serviceproviders or specially enhanced broad-cast signals. There were systemsmounted in vehicles that would allowconsumers to watch their favorite con-tent while tooling down the highway.In theory the viewers would be ridingin the back seat but I did see displaysmounted in the dash and in the sunvisors of more than one vehicle. So nomatter where we are traveling, wedon’t have to ever look out the win-

dow, we can just look at our displays.On the other side of the aisle are

these tremendously large displays. Thisyear the biggest was the 150” plasma thatwas the center piece of one manufactur-er’s area on the floor. When I got home,I measured every wall in my house andactually found a couple of places whereI could put the 150” display. Unfortu-nately I would have to actually remove awall to get it in the house. But there wasno shortage of large plasma, LCD andDLP displays that could fit through adoor and hang on wall (be sure to findthe studs). There were home audio sys-tems that offered 5.1 surround, 7.1 sur-round, 11.1 surround and so on. Istopped counting when I was looking ata system that had 22 speakers becauseall I could think of was loud commer-cials and out of sync audio, two veryimportant issues that broadcasters andcontent creators are still wrestling with.

Standing in the gap between thesmall mobile devices and the hugeimmobile devices was a group of non-technical corporate types that run thecompanies that make content. Theywere asking themselves a very simplequestion: How do we make qualityand compelling content that looks and

sounds good on any of these devices?This was for me the “aha” moment.

As an engineer, I have been telling mynon-technical bosses from the first timeI saw a demonstration of digital televi-sion (or should I say a glitch in thedemonstration) that in the new world ofdigital, all problems look pretty muchthe same to the end user. For this evolu-tion to be successful, we must considerthe process of content creation to con-sumption as a single system or we riskfailure on a gigantic scale. My concernwas always the dreaded blue screenwhich was the absence of content. Ithink I was using the wrong example. Ishould have focused more on the pres-ence of indecipherable content.

I would encourage all of you asprofessionals in the technical side ofthese industries to start the dialog withthe folks in the creative and financialsides. There is an ancient quote thatsays “A cord of three strands is notquickly broken.” If the technical strand,the creative strand and business strandare intertwined correctly, we all have arope that will serve us long and well.

Bill [email protected]

Plans Moving Ahead for the 2008 IEEE BTS 58thBroadcast Symposium

Plans are well underway by the BTSBroadcast Symposium Committee tomake the 58th IEEE Broadcast Sympo-sium the best ever.

The 2008 Symposium will be heldfrom 15 through 17 October 2008 atthe new Westin Hotel in Alexandria,Virginia, USA.

We are proud to welcome back thisyear Guy Bouchard who will serve asChair of the 2008 IEEE Broadcast Sym-posium. Guy Bouchard is the SeniorManager of New Broadcast Technolo-gies (NBT) at CBC/Radio, Canada. The

Symposium Technical Program Com-mittee is co-chaired by Ed Williams andJames Fang. They are developing ahighly informative, useful and interest-ing program consisting of a series ofbroadcast engineering sessions offeringa series presentations on both practicalapplications and research activities.

At the back of this Newsletter, pleasesee a full page announcement present-ing a Call for Papers for the BroadcastSymposium. Abstracts are due 23 May2008. Please email your abstracts (< 500words) to [email protected].

Keep checking the Symposium website often at www.ieee.org/bts/sympo-sium for the latest news and scheduleof events for the 2008 IEEE BroadcastSymposium.

To obtain information about theWestin Hotel Alexandria, visit its website at www.Westin.com/Alexandria

We look forward to seeing you atthe 2008 58th IEEE Broadcast Sympo-sium. If you have any questions, com-ments or need more information,please contact Kathy Colabaugh, BTSSenior Administrator, at [email protected].



Learn About “Proposed ATSC Mobile/HandheldSystems” at NAB 2008Tom Gurley, NAB Tutorial Chair

Continuing our tradition of the pastfourteen years, IEEE-BTS will againpartner with NAB to present a technol-ogy tutorial on a topic of current inter-est at the 2008 Broadcast EngineeringConference (BEC). This year’s tutorial,on Saturday afternoon, April 12, willfocus on the three full-system propos-als under consideration by the ATSCfor delivery of services to mobile andhandheld devices. It will be presentedby the engineers responsible for thedesign, test, and implementation ofthese systems, and it will include anoverview of the ATSC process present-ed by the chairman of the responsibleATSC committee. With an “Indepen-dent Demonstration of Viability” ofactual hardware in the laboratory andin the field scheduled to be completed

prior to NAB, in support of a decisionpoint in May, this year’s tutorial will beespecially timely. Also, it will serve asbackground for the Sunday BEC ses-sion on “DTV Broadcasting for Mobileand Handheld”.

The tutorial will open with a presen-tation from Mark Aitken, Director ofAdvanced Technology for Sinclair Broad-cast Group, who chairs the ATSC TSG/S4Specialist Group on Mobile/Handheld.This Overview will be followed by threeone-hour presentations, covering each ofthe three system proposals. The LG Elec-tronics/Zenith/Harris “MPH” Proposalwill be presented by Wayne Bretl, Princi-pal Engineer, Zenith Electronics Corp.,and John Mailhot, Manager, Video Net-working Group, Harris BroadcastCommunications. Junehee Lee and

Joonsoo Kim of Samsung Electronicsare preparing the tutorial on the Sam-sung/Rohde&Schwarz/Nokia Proposal.And, the Thomson/Micronas Proposalwill be presented by Wen Gao, AlanStein, and David Campana of Thom-son, and Richard Citta, representingMicronas.

The tutorial is open to all regis-trants of the NAB Broadcast Engineer-ing Conference. The presentations willbe compiled on a CD, which will beprovided to all attendees.

For latest information, visit the BTShome page at www.ieee.org/bts andclick on the tutorial announcement atthe NAB show. Visit the NAB web siteat www.nabshow.com for more infor-mation on this tutorial and all NABevents.

BTS Activities WorldwideYour IEEE Broadcast Technology Soci-ety continues it representation andparticipation at several broadcast engi-neering events this year.

BTS Broadband MultimediaSymposiumThe 2008 IEEE International Sympo-sium on Broadband Multimedia Sys-tems and Broadcasting will be held 31March through 2 April 2008 in LasVegas, Nevada, USA. The theme forthis event is “Multiple Technologiesfor Multimedia”.

The IEEE Broadcast Technology Soci-ety proudly presents the 2008 IEEE Inter-national Symposium on BroadbandMultimedia Systems and Broadcasting, anindustry-oriented premier forum for thepresentation and exchange of technicaladvances in the rapidly converging areasof multimedia broadcasting, telecommuni-cations, consumer electronics, and net-working technologies. This thirdsymposium in the annual series bringstogether leading engineers, researchers,and service providers from around the

world to present and discuss state-of-the-art research results and challenges in theapplication and implementation of mobileand broadband multimedia systems.

The Symposium Chair is ThomasM. Gurley - IEEE Broadcast Technolo-gy Society, NC USA. The TechnicalProgram Co-Chairs are Yiyan Wu –Communications Research Centre,Canada and Demin Wang – Communi-cations Research Centre, Canada.

For complete Symposium details, reg-istration and hotel information visit theIEEE BTS site at www.ieee.org/bts. Clickon the BTS IEEE Broadband MultimediaSymposium announcement.

IEEE Transactions on Broad-casting Special Issue on IPTVin Multimedia BroadcastingThe IEEE BTS has issued a Call forPapers for a Special Issue on IPTV inMultimedia Broadcasting to be pub-lished in the IEEE Transactions onBroadcasting.

This special issue solicits innovativepapers on all aspects of IPTV in multi-

media broadcasting, including archi-tectural standardization, content pro-tection, quality of service and qualityof experience, middleware, as well asbilling, accounting, etc.

The Call for Papers information isincluded as a full page announcementin the back section of this BTSNewsletter. Deadline for authors tosubmit papers is 1 May 2008.Prospective authors should submit aPDF version of their paper to JenniferBarbato at [email protected].

For the latest information about thecall for papers visit the BTS web siteat: http://ieee.org/organizations/socie-ty/bt/specialissue2009.pdf.

ICC 2008 WorkshopOrganized by the IEEE BTSBeijing ChapterThe 2008 IEEE International Conferenceon Communications (ICC 2008) will beheld in Beijing, China, from 19-23 May2008. On Friday morning 23 May 2008from 9:00am-12:30pm, the IEEE BTS Bei-jing Chapter has organized and will pres-


ent a Workshop on “Digital Televisionand Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting.” Dr.Yiyan Wu of the CommunicationsResearch Centre, Canada and Prof. JianSong of Tsinghua University, China serveas Co-Chairs of this workshop.

Broadcasting of digital television(DTV) and mobile multimedia hasbeen a very exciting topic worldwidefor years. Since DTV and high defini-tion television (HDTV) servicesempowered by the advanced digitalbroadcasting technologies have suc-cessfully brought billions of customersthe excellent watching experiencenever realized before from watchinganalog TV, it is a fast emerging areawith huge economic impact.

Please see the full page announce-ment about this workshop providedin the back part of this newsletter.For the latest information about ICC2008 and the workshop, visit the ICC2008 web site at: www.ieee-icc.org.

IEEE BTS Representatives atBroadcastAsia2008You are invited to visit with ourIEEE BTS volunteers who will be

staffing the IEEE Broadcast Technol-ogy Membership Booth at location8G2-05 during the BroadcastA-sia2008 event. The BTS volunteerswill be glad to provide you withinformation about the IEEE and theBroadcast Technology Society, itspublications and Chapters.

Held from 17-20 June 2008 at theSingapore Expo, Singapore, Broadcas-tAsia2008 will once again showcasethe latest digital multimedia technolo-gy and professional industry equip-ment and services from exhibitingcompanies all over the world. Visitorsand exhibitors can expect to meetbroadcasters, production companies,animation houses, content ownersand developers, computer graphicsproducers, online gaming developersand many more at the event.

For latest information, visit theBroadcastAsia2008 web site atwww.broadcast-asia.com/main.htm.

IEEE BTS Representation atIBC2008 IBC is committed to providing theworld's best event for everyone

involved in the creation, manage-ment and delivery of content for theentertainment industry. Run by theindustry for the industry, IBC isowned by six Partners who repre-sent both visitors and exhibitors.Uniquely, the key executives andcommittees who control the conven-tion are drawn from these organiza-tions, bringing with them experienceand expertise in all aspects of ourindustry.

IBC returns to the RAI Centre inAmsterdam this year, with the confer-ence opening on 11 September andthe exhibition running from 12 to 16September 2008. As in previous years,the IEEE BTS will provide a Member-ship Booth where BTS staff andAdCom members will be available tomeet with attendees and provideinformation about the IEEE and BTS.Keep checking the IEEE BTS homepage www.ieee.org/bts for updatedinformation about IEEE BTS participa-tion at IBC2008.

For the latest information aboutIBC2008, visit its web site at:www.ibc.org.


Benefits of IEEE Senior Membership and Newly Elevated BTS MembersThere are many benefits to becomingan IEEE Senior Member:• The professional recognition of your

peers for technical and professionalexcellence.

• An attractive fine wood and bronzeengraved Senior Member plaque toproudly display.

• Up to $25 gift certificate toward onenew Society membership.

• A letter of commendation to youremployer on the achievement ofSenior Member grade (upon therequest of the newly elected SeniorMember.)

• Announcement of elevation in Sec-tion/Society and/or local newsletter,

newspaper and notices.• Eligibility to hold executive IEEE

volunteer positions.• Can serve as Reference for Senior

Member applicants.• Invited to be on the panel to review

Senior Member applications.The requirements to qualify for

Senior Member elevation are as follows:• A Candidate shall be an engineer,

scientist, educator, technical execu-tive or originator in IEEE-designatedfields.

• The Candidate shall have been in aprofessional practice for at least tenyears and shall have shown signifi-cant performance over a period of

at least five of those years.• A Candidate must also supply three

references from current IEEE mem-bers holding the grade of Fellow,Senior Member, or Honorary Member.To apply, the Senior Member applica-

tion form is available in 3 formats:Online, downloadable, and electronicversion. For more information or toapply for Senior Membership, please seethe IEEE Senior Member Program web-site: http://www.ieee.org/web/member-ship/senior-members/index.html. If youhave any questions or need assistancewith your application, please contactJennifer Barbato, BTS Publications Assis-tant, at [email protected].

Weihua Bing, U.S.AStephen Marshall, U.S.ARobert Good, U.S.AJustin Mitchell, Ireland

Duang Han, South KoreaGeorge Paunovic, SpainWilliam Hayes, U.S.AGeorge Walters, Australia

Thursten Herfet, GermanyLeif Wilhelmsson, SwedenChak-Joo Lee, SingaporeLiang Zhang, Canada

Congratulations to the newly elevated BTS Senior Members for 2007:



Two BTS Members Elevated to IEEE Fellow Grade

The BTS is proud to announce the eleva-tion of two of its members to the IEEEGrade of Fellow effective 1 January 2008.They are Dr. Keiichi Kubota and Dr.Jinyun Zhang.

The grade of Fellow recognizesunusual distinction in the profession andis conferred by the Board of Directorsupon a person with an extraordinaryrecord of accomplishments in any of theIEEE fields of interest. The accomplish-ments that are being honored shall havecontributed importantly to the advance-ment or application of engineering, sci-ence and technology, bringing therealization of significant value to society.

The IEEE Fellows are an elite groupfrom around the globe. The IEEE looksto the Fellows for guidance and leader-ship as the world of electrical and elec-tronic technology continues to evolve.The IEEE Broadcast Technology Societyextends its congratulations to KeiichiKubota and Jinyun Zhang. Below are thebackgrounds of these new IEEE Fellows.

Keiichi KubotaIEEE BTS Fellow 2008

The IEEE Broad-cast TechnologySociety is proudto announce thatthe IEEE Boardof Directors haselevated Dr. Kei-ichi Kubota tothe IEEE Gradeof Fellow effec-

tive 1 January 2008. Dr. Kubota was hon-ored for his contributions to HDTVcompression and transmission systems.

Keiichi Kubota joined Japan Broad-casting Corporation (NHK) in 1976. From1979 to 1980, he was a visiting engineerat the CBS Technology Center in Stam-ford, Connecticut, U.S.A. Since August1980, he had been with the Science andTechnical Research Laboratories of NHK,working in the areas of satellite and ter-restrial transmission systems of HDTV,signal processing for HDTV, and subjec-tive assessment of HDTV picture quality.

From 1989 through 1993, he was theSenior Scientist at NHK’s New York

Office. During this period he participatedin various HDTV standardization activi-ties in SMPTE, ATSC, and the FCC Advi-sory Committee on ATV Service. In 1993,he was transferred back to NHK Labora-tories as the Senior Research Scientist,and later the Deputy Director ofAdvanced Television Systems ResearchDivision, where he was in charge ofresearch activities in digital coding ofHDTV and stereoscopic television. In1996 he was transferred to the PlanningDivision of the Engineering Administra-tion Department as the Senior AssociateDirector, where he was responsible forstarting NHK’s digital satellite broadcast-ing service. From 2001 through 2005, hewas the Director of the Planning andCoordination Division of NHK’s Labora-tories, and then the Deputy Director ofthe Laboratories. From 2005 through2006 he was in charge of the nationwiderollout of NHK’s terrestrial digital broad-casting services serving as EngineeringController for the Engineering Adminis-tration Department.

Currently, Dr. Kubota is the Director-General of the Corporate PlanningBureau of NHK. He served as Chair ofJapan Chapter of Broadcast TechnologySociety from 2006 to 2007. He receivedhis B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Uni-versity of Tokyo in 1976 and 1987 respec-tively, and has been a SMPTE fellowsince 1993. Dr. Kubota has been a mem-ber of the IEEE since 1979 and the IEEEBroadcast Technology Society since 1993.

Jinyun ZhangIEEE BTS Fellow 2008The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society

is proud toannounce thatthe IEEE Boardof Directors haselevated Dr.Jinyun Zhang tothe IEEE Gradeof Fellow effec-tive 1 January2008. Dr. Zhang

was honored for her contributions tobroadband wireless transmission and net-working technology.

Jinyun Zhang received her B.Sc. degreein radio electronics from Tsinghua Univer-sity, Beijing, China in 1970. Following hergraduation, she was with Tsinghua Univer-sity teaching and also performing researchuntil 1984. She received her Ph.D. degreein electrical engineering from the Universi-ty of Ottawa, Canada in 1991. Dr. Zhangthen joined Nortel Networks and remainedwith the company for more than 10 years,where she held various management posi-tions and engineering positions of increas-ing responsibility in the areas of digitalsignal processing, wireless communicationand optical networks. She was a key con-tributor for the development of Nortel’s 1stgeneration, 2nd generation and 3rd gener-ation mobile base stations as well as ultrahigh speed optical DWDM (Dense WaveDivision Multiplex) networks. Since 2001,Dr. Zhang has been the Manager of theDigital Communications & NetworkingGroup at Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab-oratories (MERL), Cambridge, MA, USA.Currently, she is leading many new broad-band wireless communications and net-working research projects that includeUWB (Ultra Wide Band), ZigBee (Ad Hocnetworking), MIMO (Multiple-Input-Mul-tiple-Output), broadband multimediahome networking, wireless sensor net-working, high speed WLAN, cooperativecommunications, WiMAX (WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access,Wireless Metropolitan Area Network)and next generation mobile communica-tions systems.

Dr. Zhang has authored and co-authored more than 110 publications,invented and co-invented more than 80patents and patent applications, andmade numerous contributions to vari-ous international standards in the areaof wireless communications. Dr. Zhangis an Associate Editor of the IEEE Trans-actions on Broadcasting, and has servedas a Technical Program Committeemember for various IEEE conferences.Dr. Zhang also serves as a technicalreviewer for many IEEE publications.Dr. Zhang has been a member of theIEEE since 1991. She is a member of theIT, LEO, AP, BT, COMM, SP, VT, and ITSIEEE Socieites.


Jules Cohen’s membership in the IEEEand its prior organizations stretchback over seventy years. His member-ship in the IEEE actually started withmembership in the University ofWashington (Seattle) student branch ofthe AIEE in 1936. Upon graduation in1938 Jules continued his membershipin AIEE since his first engineeringemployment was in power. WhenJules was commissioned as a NavalOfficer in 1942, the Navy assignedhim to electronics duties and he sub-sequently joined the IRE in 1954(without dropping his AIEE member-ship). Jules started with what wouldhave been the predecessor of BTS inthe IRE. When AIEE and IRE joined toform the IEEE, Jules became an IEEEmember as a Senior Member. In 1990Jules was elevated to the IEEE Gradeof Fellow by the IEEE Board of Direc-tor for his leadership in the improve-ment of television broadcast serviceand the development of engineeringstandards.

Jules Cohen received the degree ofBachelor of Science in Electrical Engi-neering from the University of Wash-ington (Seattle) in 1938. His firstprofessional experience was with con-sulting engineering firms in the City ofSeattle, then with the BonnevillePower Administration, a division of theU.S. Department of the Interior, wherehe served as a junior engineer andassistant engineer in the substationdesign section. He was commissionedin the Navy in May of 1942 and servedfor three and one-half years as a navalofficer during World War II. His dutiesincluded training at Harvard, at MITand at the Naval Air Technical TrainingCenter in Corpus Christi. He was aproject officer on radar beacons at theRadiation Laboratory at MIT, then atthe Bureau of Ships. Under the Com-

mander, Service Forces, Pacific Fleet,he was in charge of the radar beaconprogram for the Pacific Fleet. His lastduty station in the Navy was as Exec-utive Officer of the Electronics Divi-sion, Commander Service Forces,Pacific Fleet.

Following release from the Navy,Jules entered the field of consultingengineering and has been so engagedfor over 60 years. During 55 of those 60years, he has been a sole principal,partner or corporate president in a con-sulting engineering firm. He has beenlicensed to practice as a professionalengineer in the District of Columbiasince 1952, has been licensed to prac-tice as a professional engineer in theCommonwealth of Virginia since 1954and is licensed to practice as a profes-sional engineer in the State of Mary-land. During the period of hisprofessional practice, he has providedprofessional engineering services in thefields of broadcasting and both wiredand wireless communications. Duringthe past 30 or more years of his prac-tice, an important aspect of his workhas been the analysis by calculationsand measurements of radio-frequency

exposure. On January 1, 1988, heretired from the presidency of JulesCohen & Associates, P.C., but has con-tinued providing professional consult-ing services to selected clients.

Over 10,000 projects of varying lev-els of complexity have been carriedout by Jules or under his direction.Work performed has included radio-frequency propagation studies, inter-ference studies, frequency allocationsurveys, radiation hazard evaluations,standard broadcast directional antennadesign and adjustment, AM, FM andTV field strength measurements, tele-vision picture quality assessment,satellite earth station studies, the plan-ning and placement of cellular andother communications structures, stu-dio and transmitting plant layouts forboth radio and television, equipmentevaluation, and extensive workinvolving the engineering aspects ofchanges in the rules of the FederalCommunications Commission (FCC).

Jules was the author of Appendix Cof the 1975 Cable Television AdvisoryCommittee Panel II report to the FCC.That appendix dealt with the problemof echoes in television systems. He is


BTS Member Profile:Jules Cohen IEEE BTS Life Fellow

Periodically, the BTS Newsletter will be publishing a profile of a BTS member. The BTS Newsletter has the honor to present itsfirst profile article about our long time IEEE BTS friend and colleague, Jules Cohen.

Jules Cohen



also the author of the section on lowpower television in the 1986 edition ofthe McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Sci-ence and Technology. He was co-author of Section 2.9, HumanExposure to RF Radiation in theEighth Edition of the National Associa-tion of Broadcasters EngineeringHandbook. As chairman of the engi-neering committee concerned withinterference to television broadcastingfrom noncommercial FM stations, heplayed a major role in the develop-ment of the rules adopted by the FCCgoverning the assignment of FM sta-tions in the frequency band from 88.1to 91.9 MHz. He represented televi-sion broadcast interests as co-chair-man of the Technical AnalysisWorking Group of the Land MobileRadio/UHF Television Technical Advi-sory Committee.

From the time of its inception in1983 to 1996, Jules Cohen representedthe members of the Association ofMaximum Service Television, Inc.(MSTV) in subcommittees and techni-cal groups of the Advanced TelevisionSystems Committee (ATSC). From1996 to September 1998, he represent-ed the IEEE on the Executive Commit-tee of the ATSC. He has participatedas a member, co-chairman or vicechairman of a number of ATSC Tech-nical Groups. As stated in its Charter,the purpose of the ATSC “[Is] toexplore the need for and, whereappropriate, to coordinate develop-ment of voluntary national technicalstandards for Advanced TelevisionSystems.”

Jules participation in the work ofthe Advisory Committee on AdvancedTelevision Service (ACATS) began inNovember 1987, the starting date setby the FCC, and continued until thecompletion of the Advisory Commit-tee’s work in November, 1995. He wasa member of Working Parties 1 and 2of the Systems Subcommittee (SS/WP-1 and 2), and Working Parties 3, 4 and6 of the Planning Subcommittee(PS/WP-3, 4 and 6). Under SS/WP-2he chaired the Field Testing TaskForce. That Task Force completed

field testing of the Grand Alliance Dig-ital Television System in October,1995. Mr. Cohen had a major role inpreparing both the specifications forthe field testing and preparation of thereport following field testing. UnderPS/WP-3, he chaired the SpectrumAnalysis Working Group.

Clients have included: all five ofthe major television networks (ABC.CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS), the NationalAssociation of Broadcasters (NAB),MSTV, the Electronic Industry Associa-tion (now the Consumer ElectronicsAssociation), major group owners ofradio and television stations, individ-ual radio and television stations, andCellular System and Personal Commu-nications System providers. He hasalso provided engineering services tocommunity and citizen groups relativeto the placement of broadcast andwireless communications facilities.

For more than thirty years, Juleshas worked extensively in the field ofnonionizing radiation effects. He hasdone research in the scientific litera-ture devoted to the subject; participat-ed in the Bioelectromagnetics SocietySymposia held yearly from 1979through 1995, as well as in 1998through 2005; completed courses inHazardous Electromagnetic Radiationoffered by George Washington Univer-sity; the Management of Electromag-netic Energy Hazards offered by CookCollege, Rutgers University; and Elec-tric and Magnetic Field HealthResearch: Assessing the Science,offered by the Harvard UniversitySchool of Public Health; attendedmeetings of the Electromagnetic Radi-ation Management Advisory Council;participated in Michaelson ResearchConferences in 1994, 1995, 1997through 2007; moderated panels onthe Biological Effects of NonionizingRadiation at the 1979, 1983 and 1988annual conventions of the NAB; deliv-ered invited papers on the BiologicalEffects of Nonionizing Radiation in the1979, 1984 and 1993 meetings of theBroadcast Technology Society of theIEEE, and, by invitation, provided acritique of the first and second 1979

drafts and the 1985 draft of aRF/Microwave Criteria document ofthe National Institute for OccupationalSafety and Health (NIOSH).

Jules was a member of AmericanNational Standards Institute (ANSI)Committee C95 that developed the1982 ANSI Standard C95.1-1982 SafetyLevels with Respect to Human Expo-sure to Radio Frequency Electromag-netic Fields, 300 kHz to 100 GHz. Heis a member of the IEEE InternationalCommittee on Electromagnetic Safety(ICES) and Subcommittee IV, whichcompleted a revision to ANSI StandardC95.1-1982, now identified as IEEEC95.1-1999. Subcommittee IV is con-tinuing evaluation of scientific litera-ture for possible further updating ofthe standard. The update of the 1999standard was approved by the Boardof the IEEE Standards Association onOctober 3, 2005, and is now in print.He is a member of ICES SubcommitteeI that developed IEEE Standard C95.3-1991, and the 2002 revision titled IEEERecommended Practice for Measure-ments and Computations of Radio Fre-quency Electromagnetic Fields WithRespect to Human Exposure to SuchFields, 100 kHz-300GHz. He is amember of the IEEE Committee onMan and Radiation (COMAR). He isalso a member of Committee 89-2 ofthe National Council on Radiation Pro-tection and Measurements (NCRP).Committee 89-2 has prepared ReportNo. 119 A Practical Guide to theDetermination of Human Exposure toRadiofrequency Fields. Under contractto the NAB, he prepared a suggestedrevision to FCC OST Bulletin No. 65,taking into account the ANSI/IEEE1992 exposure guide.

Jules has made RF exposure meas-urements at both the World Trade Cen-ter and Empire State Building in NewYork City and at the John HancockBuilding in Chicago. Over the pasttwenty five years, he has also made RFexposure measurements at numerouslocations on behalf of broadcast stationlicensees, cell phone operators, and asatellite station operator.

He has been qualified as an expert


witness in Federal Courts, othercourts, local boards and councils, andin hearings before the FCC and FAA.His expert testimony was accepted inthe United States District Court for theSouthern District of Florida in the mat-ter of CBS, Inc. et aI v. EchoStar Com-munications Corporation d/b/a DISHNetwork, et al., Case No. 98-2651-CIV-Dimitrouleas/Seltzer.

Jules is a member of Tau Beta Pi,engineering scholastic honorary, amember of the National Society ofProfessional Engineers, a Life Mem-ber of the American Association forthe Advancement of Science (AAAS),a Life Fellow of the Institute of Elec-trical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE), a Life Fellow of the Society ofMotion Picture and Television Engi-neers (SMPTE), a charter member ofthe Bioelectromagnetics Society, apast president of the Association ofFederal Communications Consulting

Engineers (AFCCE) and former chair-man of that association’s RadiationHazard Subcommittee. He was select-ed for the 1988 NAB EngineeringAchievement Award, a 1990 Achieve-ment Award of the Broadcast Pio-neers Washington, DC chapter and a1999 award from the IEEE BroadcastTechnology Society for a lifetime ofservice to the broadcasting industryand to the Society. During the year2000 convention of the NAB, hereceived a further award from theNAB engineers for his over fifty yearsof service to the broadcast communi-ty and a Pioneers award from theBroadcasters’ Foundation. In Novem-ber, 2006, Jules received the E. NoelLuddy Award of the AFCCE for “Yearsof Service to the CommunicationsCommunity.”

The BTS Newsletter asked Jules ifhe would like to share some of histhoughts for today’s students and

young graduates thinking about acareer in engineering. Jules offeredthese observations to young men andwomen with aptitude and interest inengineering. As his own career pro-gressed from power substationdesign - which was part of the gen-eration and delivery of power to thegrowing Northwest - through therapid development of electronics inWorld War II and beyond, then thegrowth of broadcasting, with theintroduction of FM and TV, member-ship in AIEE, IRE and IEEE, withaccess to its meetings and publica-tions, was of immeasurable help inmaintaining his professional develop-ment. The worlds of science andengineering are not static. As in thepast, they continually change andour skills must change with them ifwe are to remain relevant. Formalschooling is essential for a start, butlearning must continue with life.


OTA?by Ralph H. Justus, BTS AdCom Member

“A picture is worth a thousand words” it issaid. This one has consumed more than itsshare and curiously has been hard to findanywhere. I submit it here to stimulate read-ers’ reflections on its meaning.

“In the beginning” there was over-the-air(OTA) television. Sometime in the mid-1980sto mid-1990s the universe of program deliveryshifted. We saw the formation of theAdvanced Television Systems Committee(1982) and the FCC Advisory Committee onAdvanced Television Service (1987) which ledultimately to the FCC adoption of the U.S.DTV standard (1996). Since then, DTV imple-mentation issues have commanded centerstage. Were we too consumed with the issuesdu jour to notice a fundamental change?

Multi-channel Video Programming Distrib-utor (MVPD). What an acronym!

Your views?Please reply to Ralph H. Justus at

[email protected]

MVPD U.S. Penetration Percentage of Total TVHH 1975-2005

Source: 1975-1990 -- FCC OPP Working Paper 37, “Broadcast Television:Survivor in a Sea of Competition,” September 2002; 1995-2005 -- FCC“Annual Report on the State of Video Competition,” Kagan Research,L.L.C. (as depicted in the NCTA Annual Report “2006 Industry Overview,”see: http://i.ncta.com/ncta_com/PDFs/NCTAAnnual%20Report4-06FINAL.pdf).


21 January 2008Dear Dr. Yiyan WuEditor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions onBroadcasting

Thank you very much for approv-ing publication in the IEEE Transac-tions on Broadcasting, our paper titled“Modeling and Measurement of Air-plane Flutter Phenomena on TVBroadcasting Signal” coauthored by A.Wongkeeratikul, P. Supnithi, S. Nop-panakeepong, N. Leelaruji, and N.Hemmakorn

I am in the final year of my doctoraldegree. I have completed all my coursework and conference papers accordingto the requirements of the KingMongkut’s Institute of Technology Lad-krabang. One remaining course require-ment was for me to successfully have afull paper accepted for publication in a

leading peer reviewed scientific journalsuch as an IEEE or IEE journal.

I am a young researcher whoworked extremely hard to the best ofmy ability, to produce my completepaper. If the IEEE/BTS Editor-in-Chiefof the Transactions on Broadcastinghad rejected my paper, insufficienttime would remain for me to submitthe paper to another journal for possi-ble publication. If my paper wasn’taccepted for publication, then I wouldnot be allowed to take my thesisexamination which then would requireme to complete an additional year ofstudy. Such a situation would haveprevented me from continuing myeducation and be difficult for me tofind work on another research project.

Now that my paper has been accept-ed and approved for publication in the

IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, I amable to complete my education. I cannow take my thesis examination which Iam confident will go well. I look forwardto continuing my research in the field ofradio and television broadcasting.

I am very grateful to IEEE Transac-tions on Broadcasting for acceptingour paper for publication and helpingme with my last chance to qualify formy doctoral degree.

Thank you for your kindness.Sincerely yours,

Anuchit WongkeeratikulFaculty of Engineering and

Research Center for Communica-tion and Information Technologies

King of Mongkut’s Institute ofTechnology Ladkrabang

Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand

The 6th IPTV Focus Group (FG) meet-ing, hosted by ITU-T, was convened inTokyo, Japan from 15-19 Oct. 2007, withapproximately 300 attendees participat-ing in this meeting. 183 contributionsand 11 incoming liaison statements weresubmitted at the meeting.

In the plenary session on the firstday, Mr. Ghassem Koleyni, the IPTVFG Chairman, opened the meetingand thanked the participants and hostsfor their efforts in ensuring the pro-gression of the FG IPTV activities.Then Mr. Kiyoshi Mori, Vice Ministerfor Policy Coordination, Ministry ofInternal affairs and Communications,Japan, was invited to present openingremarks. Following this, Mr. MalcolmJohnson, TSB director, gave a wel-

come speech and encouraged allattendees to make contributions to theconference on “Innovations in NGN(Next Generation Networks) – FutureNetwork and Service”, which will behosted by the ITU-T in 2008. Mr. JayKishigami, executive director of NTTCyber Solution Laboratories, with theFG IPTV Japan host committee thenprovided general information aboutservice offerings and facilities availableduring the meeting. This concludedthe opening remarks for the meeting.

The meeting agenda and workplan were presented by the chair andadopted by the attendees. The alloca-t ion of meeting documents andincoming liaison statements to sixworking groups (WG) for review was

accepted. The following contribu-tions and incoming liaison statementswere reviewed and discussed in theplenary session. • IPTV-C-0829 from ICU proposed

some streamlining of IPTV standard-ization activities developed by eachworking group. Because it alsoaddressed various aspects related tomost of the working documents, allworking groups were requested todiscuss related proposals and takeappropriate action.

• IPTV-C-0835 from Nortel Networksproposed to align the definition ofcommon terms, and to create a uniquedefinition for all such terms. Theseterms should then be used in all docu-ments. All working groups were


Letter to the Editor-In-Chief, IEEE Transactions onBroadcasting

The 6th ITU-T IPTV Focus Group Meeting Report Hong LiuCommunications Research Centre Canada

Recently, the following letter was received from a Doctoral Candidate student in Thailand who co-authored a paper whichsuccessfully went through the BTS peer review process and was approved for publication in the June 2008 issue of the IEEETransactions on Broadcasting. We were pleased to hear from this author that he was able to complete a time critical require-ment for a Doctoral Degree by having his paper approved for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. The BTSextends its appreciation and thanks to Dr. Yiyan Wu, Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, Associate Editors,Referees and the BTS Publications Assistant for their hard work and dedicated team effort processing and carefully peerreviewing manuscripts submitted by authors worldwide.



requested to address this issue as dis-cussing their working documents.

• IPTV-C-0836 from Nortel Networksprovided comments on IPTV-DOC-0114 and proposed using a singlereference number for the sources inthe ATIS IIF document. This wasadopted.

• IPTV-C-0949 from British Telecomproposed that the Focus Group pri-oritize the completion of the ServiceRequirements and Architecture doc-uments at the Tokyo meeting. SinceWG1 is responsible for both ofthese documents, they were request-ed to study the proposal.

• IPTV-C-0970 from NTT and IPTV-C-973 from France Telecom proposedsome modifications on IPTV-DOC-0125 “Working Document: Aspect ofIPTV End System - TerminalDevice”. WG5 was requested towork with other working groups toharmonize its content with all otherdocuments in order to avoid anyconflict and duplication.

• IPTV-IL-0096 from ITU-T StudyGroup (SG) 16 informed FG IPTV ofQ.13/16 activities and provided aroadmap of its work on the multi-media application platforms andend systems for IPTV.

• IPTV-IL-0102 from ITU-T SG 17summarized its recommended workin Q.9/17 regarding home work andmulticast security. Also they provid-ed a list of questions which pertainto FG IPTV documents. Relevantworking groups were requested toconsider and respond to this liaisonstatement.

• IPTV-IL-0108 from ITU-T SG 12 pro-vided a list of FG IPTV documentsof interest to SG 12. The liaisonstatement was noted and appropri-ate action will be taken to provideSG 12 with the updated documents.During the remaining meeting time,

I fully participated in the entire activi-ties of WG2, since we had two contri-butions that were allocated to thisgroup from the plenary. 33 contribu-tions and 6 incoming statements werereviewed by this group. Because of

the time constraint on the completionof the IPTV standardization, no newwork item was identified during thismeeting. Our work continued to focuson reviewing, editing and updatingthe four existing working documentson: (1) Quality of Experience (QoE)Requirements for IPTV, (2) TrafficManagement Mechanisms for IPTV, (3)Application Layer Error RecoveryMechanisms for IPTV and (4) Perfor-mance Monitoring for IPTV.

It is worth mentioning here that IEEEBTS and CRC Canada proposed twocontributions jointly as follows: (1)“Suggested addition to FG-IPTV-DOC-0121 (performance monitoring forIPTV)” (IPTV-C-0830). This contributionadded a set-top box boot time measure-ment to the section 7.7 of the documentof FG-IPTV-DOC-0121. (2) “What does‘performance monitoring for IPTV’mean” (IPTV-C-0831). This contributionproposed text for the scope of the doc-ument of FG-IPTV-DOC-0121. Bothaddress the issues on the performancemonitoring of IPTV. They were adoptedwith minor editorial changes.

WG2 also held general discussionson some contributions for further con-sideration in response to the requestfrom the plenary. The comments fromthe contribution of IPTV-C-0829 withregard to WG2 activities were recon-sidered. The contribution indicatedthat since AL-FEC imposes some con-straints on IPTV end devices, it shouldtherefore be optional and alternativetechniques should be considered.WG2 confirmed that this is already thecase and other techniques are consid-ered based on contributions andongoing work in other standard bod-ies. Although no specific proposal inIPTV-C-0835 about alignment of termswas found in the WG2 documents, itshould be taken into considerationwhile we add terms and definitionshereafter. For IPTV-C-0973, WG2agreed to reference the WG2 workingdocument on Application Layer ErrorRecovery Mechanisms for AL-FEC inthe document of IPTV-DOC-0125 on“Aspects of IPTV End System – Termi-

nal Device”. The following is the summary of

the WG2 meeting results.

Incoming liaison statements• IPTV-IL-0105 from DVB provided

the updated information about boththe DVB AL-FEC1 development andthe work on retransmission andcontent download services. The lat-est published ETSI TS 102 034v1.3.12, including the DVB AL-FECspecification in annex E enables ourworking documents to be updatedaccordingly as proposed in IPTV-C-1001. The information on retrans-mission and content downloadservice was put in the living list.

• IPTV-IL-0106 from ITU-T SG12informed IPTV of its recent activitieson QoE/QoS (Quality of Experi-ence/Quality of Service) of IPTV. Itwas noted by us.

• IPTV-IL-0107 from ITU-T SG12responded to our liaison on per-formance monitoring for IPTV. SG12brought up specific questions on theApplication Layer Error RecoveryMechanisms and their impact onperformance objectives for IPTVservices. A further discussion will beneeded and a response was generat-ed as a liaison statement.

• IPTV-IL-0108 from ITU-T SG12informed IPTV of an update on theprovisional list of FG IPTV deliver-ables and their allocations to ITU-Tstudy groups and questions. Thiswas noted.

• IPTV-IL-0110 from ATIS IIF, as aresponse to our liaison of the lastmeeting, provided information onPerformance Monitoring includingthe ATIS document of ATIS-0800008:QoS Metrics for Linear BroadcastIPTV. As to the aspect of QoE, ATISIIF expects to work on the relation-ship between Mean Opinion Score(MOS) and bit rates offered by IPTVservices. The usefulness of suchwork was under question since exactMOS values are difficult to define.The basic codec scheme and severalcodec parameters have impact on therequired bandwidth and severaltrade-offs have to be considered. Itwas noted that the bit rate values inthe QoE document were taken from

1 AL-FEC: Application Layer – Forward Error Correction2 ETSI TS 102 034 v1.3.1: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Transport of MPEG-2 TS Based DVB

Services over IP Based Networks


the DSL Forum document and arebased on generally accepted valuesfor good user experience.

Quality of Experience (QoE)Requirements for IPTVThe last meeting’s working documentsIPTV-DOC-118 and living list docu-ment: IPTV-DOC-136, were updatedaccordingly.• IPTV-C-0839 from Nortel Networks

proposed editorial changes on IPTV-DOC-118. Most of them wereaccepted.

• IPTV-C-0941 from NTT and Sumito-mo provided editorial comments onIPTV-DOC-0118. This was acceptedwith minor modifications. IGMPprocessing delay was renamed asIGMP delay; Section 10.1 will bemoved to a sub-section 10.2 as EPGis a subcomponent of meta-data.

• IPTV-C-0954 from ICU providedinput for the clause in section 8 ofIPTV-DOC-0118: “QoE for text andgraphics”, based on ITU-T F.700.The relevant text proposal wasagreed to be adopted as part of edit-ing work.

• IPTV-C-0958 from NTT proposed anew section 10.4 on navigation. Thiswas approved with the change of“Navigation” to “Content Navigation”.

Traffic ManagementMechanisms for IPTVThe working document from lastmeeting: IPTV-DOC-119 was updatedas follows:• IPTV-C-0840 from Nortel Network

proposed editorial comments onIPTV-DOC-0119. These commentswere adopted.

• IPTV-C-0942 from NTT, NEC andSumitomo proposed some editorialchanges on IPTV-DOC-0119. Figure6-3 was updated in alignment withFG IPTV-DOC-0062 on IPTV Archi-tecture, and more explanations wereadded in the text for the arrows inFigure 6-3. Arrows that can not beexplained in the context of the doc-ument were removed. The text insection 6.3.1 on L2 multicast wasmodified to get around IGMP (Inter-net Group Management Protocol)snooping.

• IPTV-C-0952 from ICU proposed toupdate the services in tables 2 and 3of IPTV-DOC-0119, based on theWG1 document on IPTV servicescenarios. It was basically agreed. Inaddition section 7.2 and 7.3 will becombined and table 2 removed as itis a subset of table 3. The classassignments in table 3 have to bechecked as part of the editing work.

Application Layer ErrorRecovery Mechanisms forIPTVThe working documents from the lastmeeting: IPTV-DOC-120 and its livinglist: IPTV-DOC-138, were updated asfollows: • IPTV-C-841 from Nortel Networks

provided mainly editorial commentson IPTV-DOC-120. This was accepted.

• IPTV-C-885 from ZTE proposed anapplication layer definition andadditional error recovery mecha-nisms based on interleaving andVideo Error Resilience techniques.This was put in the living list. Fur-ther information and verificationfrom WG6 on the impact of theFMO and RS techniques of H.264were requested.

• IPTV-C-943 from Sumitomo, NECand NTT jointly proposed editorialcomments on IPTV-DOC-120. Thecomment on section 7 was rejected.As a compromise, section 7 isremoved with the exception of thefirst paragraph which will be movedto the Introduction section. The titleof section 8 will be “Overview onError Recovery Mechanisms andRelated Standards”. The other com-ments were accepted.

• IPTV-C-999 from Digital Fountainprovided an update for section 8.2.2of IPTV-DOC-120 on FEC for Con-tent Download. This was acceptedwith minor editing changes.

• IPTV-C-1000 from Digital Fountaininformed WG4 and WG5 about Sig-naling and Control Information forsupporting DVB-IP AL-FEC. Thismaterial may be useful for our docu-ment as it defines the required infor-mation in generic way. Based on thedecisions of WG4 and WG5 we mayadd it as appendix to our document

at the next meeting. After discus-sion, it is put into the living list forthe time being.

• IPTV-C-1001 from Digital Fountainproposed to delete annex A of IPTV-DOC-120 on the specification of theDVB AL-FEC, and change all refer-ences to it into a reference to Annex Eof the DVB-IPI handbook now pub-lished by ETSI. This was accepted.

• IPTV-C-1002 from Digital Fountainproposed to modify and add text tosection 9.2 on the general discus-sion on FEC and Retransmission. Itwas agreed to remove the compar-isons of advantages and disadvan-tages between the two techniquesas this will depend on the specificparameter settings and scenarios.The text was modified.

• IPTV-C-1003 from Digital Fountainproposed text for the section 8.3“Hybrids” of IPTV-DOC-120. Thiswas adopted with editorial changesincluding a revision to the title.Statements favoring certain solutionswill be removed. The last paragraphon the suitability of the DVB AL-FECto the hybrid approach will not beincluded and put in the living list.

Performance monitoring forIPTVThe working documents from the lastmeeting: IPTV-DOC-121 and living listdocument: IPTV-DOC-139, wereupdated accordingly.• IPTV-C-842 from Nortel Networks

proposed editorial changes onIPTV-DOC-0121. Most of them wereaccepted. Figure 1 will be alignedwith the domain figure of the IPTVArchitecture document. The net-work operator domain will bedecomposed into a core and accessnetwork domain. Alignment withthe specific architecture figures isnot seen as reasonable as these fig-ures focus on the control planewith much detail while the perform-ance measurement is mainly con-cerned about the data plane.

• IPTV-C-892 from China Telecomproposed to prioritize the measure-ment parameters in three categoriesaccording to their importance forIPTV services. As the importance of



measurement parameters dependson the role of the operator (e.g.service provider, network operator)and its business decisions, it wasnot agreed to.

• IPTV-C-944 from NTT, NEC andSumitomo proposes editorialchanges on IPTV-DOC-0121. It wasaccepted with the exception ofcomment 3.

• IPTV-C-950 from Pixelmetrix pro-posed text and a table for section7.1.1 on RF Integrity measurementswith references to relevant stan-dards for different broadcast net-work technologies like DVB-S andDVB-C. This was accepted with edi-torial changes.

• IPTV-C-951 from Pixelmetrix pro-posed text for several sections ofIPTV-DOC-121. The proposed addi-tion to section 7.4.3 on zappingtime was not agreed. Instead allsubsections of 7.4.3 will be removedas only the overall zapping time isof interest. The proposals for sec-

tion 7.5.4.1, 7.5.4.2 and 7.5.4.4 wereaccepted. For section 7.6.1 only thefirst proposed paragraph will beused. No definition on what con-tributes to VoD request performanceis needed.

• IPTV-C-953 from ICU proposed toadd text to section 8.2 on Bearer Net-work Monitoring and section 8.3 onNetwork Performance monitoring.This was accepted and on further dis-cussion it was decided to combinethese two sections as Bearer NetworkMonitoring and Network Performancemonitoring are essentially the same.

• IPTV-C-1009 from ICU proposed toadd text to the document from thesection 9.2 of IPTV-DOC-121 onAudio quality monitoring. It wasagreed to include section 9.2, 9.2.1and 9.2.2 as section 8.6 and subsec-tions in the document.Among the other groups’ activities,

it is worth noting that WG1 successful-ly completed its activities on “IPTVservices requirements (IPTV-DOC-

0147)” document and this documentwill be submitted to the parent StudyGroup, ITU-T SG13, for their consider-ation. For the IPTV architecture docu-ment, WG1 agreed to work further onit, and will continue working on it forone addition meeting in order to com-plete the document.

In summary, six meeting reportwere created and approved in theconcluding plenary session. A total of20 working documents, 16 outgoingliaison statements and 12 living listswere generated or updated by allworking groups.

The seventh FG IPTV meeting isscheduled from 11 to 18 December2007 and will be held in Malta.

Hong Liu is a research engineer at theCommunications Research CentreCanada (CRC). His current researchinterests include image and video pro-cessing, computer networks and multi-media communications, DTV system.Mr. Liu is a member of IEEE and BTS.


The 7th ITU-T IPTV Focus Group Meeting ReportWei LiCommunications Research Centre Canada

The 7th ITU-T IPTV Focus Group (FGIPTV) meeting was held at Qawra, StPaul’s Bay in Malta from 11-18December, 2007. The meeting waschaired by Mr. Ghassem Koleyni (Nor-tel Networks), assisted by vice-chair-men Ms. Duo Liu (China Academy ofTelecom Research, MII, China), Mr.Simon Jones (BT) and Mr. Chae-SubLee (ETRI) and the TSB Counsellor Mr.Georges Sebek. A total of 125 atten-dees participated in this meeting. Priorto the meeting, 121 contributions and11 incoming liaison statements werereceived.

It should be noted that this was thelast FG IPTV meeting. The ITU-T’seffort on IPTV will continue under theIPTV Global Standards Initiative(IPTV-GSI) umbrella. FG IPTV docu-ments will be transferred to the appro-priate study groups via ITU StudyGroup 13. The conclusion of the workof the FG IPTV in such a short time is

an impressive achievement by someof the world’s foremost experts in thefield. During upcoming IPTV-GSIevents, regular ITU-T working meth-ods and procedures will apply bymeans of the work carried out by theexperts of the relevant Study Groupsin face-to-face meetings where globalstandards will be developed.

It is worth mentioning that theCommunications Research CentreCanada (CRC) has represented theIEEE/BTS to make a total of six con-tributing documents during the sevenFG IPTV meetings. These contribu-tions covered various IPTV QoS/QoEaspects. This highly increased the visi-bility of BTS and CRC in the ITU-Tcommunity.

It is also worth mentioning that theIEEE/BTS is planning a special issueon IPTV in Multimedia Broadcastingfor the IEEE Transaction on Broadcast-ing. As one of the guest editors of this

special issue and the BTS representa-tive, I have made many initial contactsand discussions with industrial andacademic experts prior to and duringthis meeting; recommended the list ofguest editors as well as the Table ofContents for the call-for-papers; madethe initial selection of potentialauthors for invited papers, etc. Due tothese activities, BTS and CRC’s leader-ship position is well recognized inter-nationally throughout the IPTV,Multimedia Broadcasting and ITU-Tcommunities.

On the first day’s plenary session,Mr. Ghassem Koleyni opened themeeting and thanked the participantsand hosts for their efforts in ensuringthe progression of the FG IPTV activi-ties. Then, Mr. Anthony De Bono rep-resented the Maltese Government, theMinister for Competitiveness andCommunications to give an openingremark. The meeting agenda and


work plan were presented by Mr.Koleyni and approved by the atten-dees. The allocation of meeting docu-ments and incoming liaison statementsto the six working groups (WGs) wasaccepted.

In the plenary session, one liaisonstatement and one contribution werediscussed as well:• FG IPTV-IL-0113 from SG 16

described Q.13/16 activities and theroadmap of its work on the multi-media application platforms andend systems for IPTV. No action wasrequired on part of FG IPTV.

• FG IPTV-C-1027 from Nortel Net-works addressed definitions ofterms used in different documentsand proposed a unique definitionbe used for a unique term in alldocuments. All working groupswere requested to address the issuewhile discussing their respectivedocuments and final agreement wasreached to have unique definitionfor any term used in different docu-ments.During the remaining days, I main-

ly focused on activities of WG2, alsomade efforts to monitor other groups’activities. In WG2, 3 incoming liaisonstatements and 24 contributions werereviewed. Four existing workingaspects were covered, including Quali-ty of Experience (QoE) Requirementsfor IPTV, Traffic Management Mecha-nisms for IPTV, Application LayerError Recovery Mechanisms for IPTVand Performance Monitoring for IPTV.

Detailed meeting results are sum-marized as follows:

WG2 incoming liaisonstatements• FG IPTV-IL113 from ITU-T SG12

proposes updates with respect tothe documents coming from FGIPTV WG2. This was noted. Thefinal assignment of our workingdocuments to the questions in ITU-Tstudy groups will be accomplishedduring the first meeting of IPTV-GSIin January 2008. It was noted thatliving lists would not be transferred.Interested parties should therefore

contribute open living list items tothe specific work items in the StudyGroups. Furthermore, if necessarywe can mention open issues of ourworking documents in the corre-spondence letter that will be senttogether with the document toSG13.

• FG IPTV-IL116 from ATIS IIF isdirected to SG12 and sent to the FGfor information only. ATIS IIF hasrecently created a trial use standardprocess that enables evaluation ofQoE models and they are requestinga copy of P.NAMS and G.OMVS doc-uments from ITU-T SG12. This wasnoted.

• FG IPTV-IL121 from the DVB Pro-ject; Technical Module subgroup onIP Infrastructure (DVB TM-IPI) pro-vided information on the status oftheir work on retransmission andcontent download. The documentwas shortly introduced and furtherdiscussed under agenda item 6.3 onapplication layer error recoverymechanisms.

Quality of Experience (QoE)Requirements for IPTV• FG IPTV-C-1013 from Nortel Net-

works provided mainly editorialcomments on the working docu-ment. They were accepted withsome modifications.

• FG IPTV-C-1049 from NTT Corpora-tion, NEC Corporation and Sumito-mo Electric provided comments onthe working document. The pro-posed modification (1) to clause 7.1on GOP was accepted with a modi-fication of the wording. The pro-posed modification (2) to clause7.1.1-7.1.3 on removing the regionfrom NTSC and PAL was accepted.All editorial modifications wereaccepted. Furthermore it was notedthat in Figure 7-3 “MPEG-2 AVCHDTV” was changed to “MPEG-4AVC HDTV”.

• FG IPTV-C-1055 from China NetcomGroup, Tsinghua University and Bei-jing University, Institute of Comput-ing Technology proposed to add theAVS video codec in addition to

H.264 and VC-1 in the document.This was basically agreed.

Traffic ManagementMechanisms for IPTV• FG IPTV-C-1014 from Nortel Net-

works provided editorial commentsto the working document. Theywere accepted.

• FG IPTV-C-1050 from NTT Corpora-tion, NEC Corporation and Sumito-mo Electric provided two commentson the working document. Com-ment (a) on the admission controlfor l inear TV services was notaccepted as the current textalready allows operators to useadmission control even for linearTV services. Comment (b) toremove DSLAMs[TJK1] with a localsubscriber database was acceptedwith wording modifications.

• FG IPTV-C-1056 from NokiaSiemens Networks proposed toassign in clause 7 IPTV service com-ponents such as streaming of con-tent or streaming control instead ofIPTV services to Y.1541 QoS classes.It further proposed the mapping forkey service components as anupdate to Table 7-2. The proposedmodifications were accepted.

• FG IPTV-C-1108 from ICU proposedupdates to clause 7 on mapping ofIPTV services to Y.1541 QoS classesand introduce IPTV service cate-gories in table 7-1. This was notaccepted as the definition of servicecategories was not seen as usefuland the service categories table wasremoved at the last meeting.

• FG IPTV-C-1119 from Digital Foun-tain proposed an update to table 7-2on mapping of IPTV services toY.1541 QoS classes in order todescribe the impact of AL-FEC. Thiswas basically accepted and themodifications will be applied to thenew table 7-2 as proposed byC1056.

• FG IPTV-C-1071 from ETRI pro-posed to add two new clauses ontransmission schedulers and accesstraffic management capabilitiesapplicable to IPTV. The proposed



text for hierarchical transmissionschedulers was accepted with modi-fications for inclusion in clause 6.2.2which already mentions hierarchicalscheduling. The proposed new textfor clause 11.2 on access trafficmanagement was not accepted as itintroduces new material, whichshould not be the case for thismeeting.

• FG IPTV-C-1126 from Huawei Tech-nologies proposed modifications toclause 6.1.2 on admission control.The proposed changes were accept-ed based on the changes alreadyaccepted from FG IPTV-C-1050. Theintroduction of multicast servicerequest and multicast router was notaccepted.

Application Layer ErrorRecovery Mechanisms forIPTV• FG IPTV-C-1015 from Nortel Net-

works provided editorial commentson the working document. Theywere accepted.

• FG IPTV-C-1051 from SumitomoElectric, NEC Corporation and NTTCorporation provided comments onthe working document. Instead ofmoving the whole clause 8.1 toclause 7, only parts of the first 3paragraphs will be moved into anew clause 7.1. The change toclause 9.2.2 was accepted.

• FG IPTV-C-1109 from ICU proposedthe addition of SMPTE 2022-1 (erro-neously referred to as the Pro-MPEGForum COP#3 FEC) to the list ofFEC for streaming applications. Thiswas accepted with shortening andmodifications of the descriptive text.

• FG IPTV-C-1117 from Digital Foun-tain proposed to add functionalblocks for application layer errorrecovery to the IPTV architecturedocument of WG1 and add a clauseon Application Layer Error RecoveryMechanism in the IPTV Architectureto the application layer error recov-ery mechanisms for IPTV servicesdocument. WG2 supported the pro-posal and informed WG1 about thisposition. However it was not

accepted to add a new architectureclause. Instead a reference to theIPTV architecture document will beincluded in the introduction clausebased on the decision of WG1.

• FG IPTV-C-1118 from Digital Foun-tain is for WG2 for informationonly. It proposed to add ApplicationLayer Error Recovery Protocols andrelated configuration information inan appropriate form to the WorkingDocument on “IPTV related proto-cols” of WG4. WG2 supported theproposal and informed WG4 aboutthis position.

Performance monitoring forIPTV• FG IPTV-C-1016 from Nortel Net-

works provided editorial commentson the working document. Theywere accepted.

• FG IPTV-C-1032 from China Tele-com proposed some improvementsfor the working document. (a) Toadd a sentence that performancemonitoring should not increase theload of existing service operationsystems was not accepted as such arestriction cannot be imposed. (b)To change the direction of the dataflow in figure 6-2 was not acceptedas changing the figure would be tooextensive and this flow direction isusually used in the broadcast world.(c) To add text on an interfacebetween monitoring points and themanagement platform was acceptedwith modifications of the text basedon a related proposal in FG IPTV-C-1052. It was noted that the interfaceto the management platform wouldbe defined in a separate document.(d) To add a new table to clause 7was not accepted. Instead a sen-tence will be added to cover VoDand service line-up parameters.

• FG IPTV-C-1044 from Pixelmetrixproposed to extend the list ofparameters in clause 7.5.1. This wasaccepted with modifications of thetext. The renaming of clause 8.4 wasalso accepted and new sub-clausesfor Service line-up and Channelattribute monitoring were added.

• FG IPTV-C-1045 from Pixelmetrixproposed to add new text on avail-able bandwidth to clause 7.1 “Physi-cal Layer Parameters”. This was notaccepted. Instead the availablebandwidth parameter will beremoved from table 7-1. For clause7.2 “IP Layer/Network Parameters”the addition of text for IGMPJoin/leave time and IP flow list wasaccepted. The proposed text onpacket loss and packet jitter was notaccepted as related text is alreadyavailable.

• FG IPTV-C-1046 from Pixelmetrixproposed to modify table 8-1 onVideo Quality Measurements. Thiswas accepted with the addition ofreduced reference monitoring at PT5and no-reference and reduced refer-ence monitoring at PT3 and PT4.

• FG IPTV-C-1047 from Pixelmetrixproposed to update table 7-1 toinclude the complete list of monitor-ing parameters. This was accepted ingeneral with addition of video andaudio quality monitoring at PT3 undPT4 and monitoring for all IP layerparameters at PT1 except for IGMPJoin/leave and Streaming jitter.

• FG IPTV-C-1048 from Pixelmetrixproposed to add monitoring param-eters for “Blackout Detection” and“Freeze Frame Detection” to clause7.5.2 “Video Quality” and for “AudioTone/ Silence detection” to clause7.5.3 “Audio Quality”. It was agreedto include these parameters, but asnew clauses in addition to the videoand audio quality clauses.

• FG IPTV-C-1052 from NEC Corpora-tion, NTT Corporation and Sumito-mo Electric provided severalcomments on the working docu-ment. (a) To change from central-ized monitoring to monitoring wasaccepted. (b) To restructure IPbandwidth and packet loss parame-ters was accepted. (c) To removefigure 7-2 was accepted.I also partially followed the WG1

(IPTV architecture group) activities.The architecture document has againreceived the largest share of docu-ments with 24 contributions. Signifi-




cant progress was achieved with sev-eral terminology alignments (over theclassification of components, serviceand content protection functions) anda thorough consistency check of textand diagrams.

Due to the heavy modifications onthe architecture document, it wasimpossible to find time to makeprogress on the gap analysis or toadvance the work on identified weakareas of the architecture document.This work will need to be continuedwith the IPTV-GSI.

On the last day of the meeting, sixmeeting reports were created and

approved in the concluding plenarysession. A total of 20 working docu-ments, 16 outgoing liaison statementsand 12 living lists were generated orupdated by all working groups.

The FG IPTV successfully complet-ed its activities on all six areas whichwere assigned to work on. All FGIPTV produced documents will besubmitted to the parent Study Group,ITU-T SG 13, for their considerationafter this meeting.

The FG IPTV strongly believes thatsignificant work has been accom-plished in most areas. This work pro-vides the IPTV-GSI with a strong base

of documents to build upon during itsfuture studies.

The first IPTV-GSI event was heldfrom 15-22 January, 2008 in Seoul,Republic of Korea. A web page hasbeen created for the IPTV-GSI withthe following URL: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/gsi/iptv/

Wei Li is a research scientist at theCommunications Research CentreCanada (CRC). His current researchinterests include image and video pro-cessing, multimedia communicationsand DTV systems. Dr. Li is a memberof IEEE and BTS.

On Replacing a 30-Year-old Temporary Patch in Longley-RiceBy Sid Shumate, Givens & Bell

Third of a Series:

In the last article I discussed the out-of-date instruction set in the lrpropsubroutine.

I also mentioned that there is noeasy fix, and that while considerationof obstacles in lrprop can be enabledby the addition of a few lines, the oldline-of-sight computations cannot cal-culate the line-of-sight attenuationproperly when separated by anobstruction from the diffraction rangeat the horizon. I also stated that thiswould be the topic in this article.

In the two volumes of Alice Long-ley and Phil Rice’s “Transmission LossPredictions for Tropospheric Commu-nications Circuits,” (Tech Note 101),which can be downloaded from theNTIA Longley-Rice website atwww. i t s .b ld rdoc .gov/pub/n t i a -rpt/tn101/, the line-of-sight range sig-nal attenuation is determined usingthe free space loss added to theground-reflection multipath.

Free Space Loss isDispersion, not Loss.The term “free space loss” is a mis-nomer. It is actually free space disper-

sion, as the free space loss of fieldstrength is determined by calculatingthe amount of signal arriving at asquare meter on the inside surface ofan empty ball, or sphere, of radius d,surrounding an isotropic (a theoreticalpoint-source) transmitting antennalocated at the centerpoint of thesphere, in free space. Newton’s Lawof Conservation of Energy stillapplies; the spherical wave of RFenergy from the point source is beingdispersed over the interior surfacearea of the sphere. So it is dispersion,not a true “loss” (a true loss beingdefined as a conversion to heat) thatis being calculated.

The two-ray multipath calculationdetermines the field strength of a sig-nal at a receive location, as a signalreflected off of the ground combineswith the direct signal. This reflectedsignal can theoretically combine withthe direct signal, to create up to a 6dB peak (in RF voltage, the measureof field strength) or a perfect null. Inpractical use, the peak is rarely seento be more than 3 dB, and the nullrarely exceeds 20 dB, even underideal conditions, which are relativelyrare. The full effect of this multipath

is to create a “comb filter” like seriesof narrow, deep nulls in the signalpath as the distance increases. Atlow grazing angles (the grazing anglebeing measured between the groundand the incoming signal path at thereceiver); the reflected signal revers-es polarity at the reflection point; soonce the point where the two signalsare less than _ wavelength apart isreached, the two signals will cancelmore and more as the path distanceincreases, theoretically fading to anull well beyond the horizon. Thecomputer implementations, the Irreg-ular Terrain Model (versions 1.2.2 tothe current version 7) all eliminatethe narrow nulls before the _ wave-length point, and use only the atten-uation from the last, long, slow fade.But this only functions well oversmooth, hard earth. When dealingwith ground with clutter coverand/or irregular terrain, the twopasses through the clutter (one toreach the ground, the second fromthe ground toward the receiver)quickly absorb or scatter the reflect-ed ray, eliminating the multipatheffect entirely for the first 15 to 30km. or so, out to where the reflected



ray starts to see the clutter canopy,and/or the rough terrain at a lowreflection angle, as a good reflector(a phenomenon documented byDonald Barrick in “Grazing Behaviorof Scatter and Propagation Aboveany Rough Surface”, IEEE Trans. OnAnt. & Prop, Jan.’98). Stated scientifi-cally, the Reflectivity R, of an air toground (or clutter canopy) interfacegoes from near zero at the transmit-ter site to near .999 (99.9%) at thehorizon. So the early path multipathis eaten up by ground clutter whenthe terrain roughness factor, Δhexceeds a Δh of 4; and Longley-Ricestates that the U. S. average terrainroughness factor is Δh = 90. Whichpretty much leaves only the freespace dispersion for most of theaverage line-of-sight path.

But we still see losses in the line-of-sight path that are greater thanjust the free space dispersion. TechNote 101 does not address thecause. A. G. Longley and P. L. Rice,in the pre-ITM computer code foundin “Prediction of Tropospheric RadioTransmission Loss Over IrregularTerrain”, A Computer Method –1968”, (ITS-67) were apparently at aloss to explain what caused theattenuation, and substituted a patch;they used a calculation of diffractionlosses, calculated at three locations;two of which are in the line-of-sightrange, and one at or past the hori-zon, to solve for a straight-line for-mula (Attenuation = a*distance +b),and then used the answer from thisformula, solved at the path distancebeing considered, as the value ofthe unexplained attenuation. Thediffraction calculation used, howev-er, is the same one that can onlycorrectly be used for diffraction atthe horizon or over a major obstacle(subroutine adiff). Whatever slightvalidity this method has, disappearsent irely when considerat ion ofobstructions are added, as they arein the ITM code; yet this early patchis still in use. Dr. Harry Anderson,of EDX, correctly describes this pro-cedural patch in his 2003 book,

“Fixed Broadband Wireless SystemDesign”, and then adds a few choicewords to express his opinion of thecontinued use of this patch in Long-ley Rice.

To replace this patch, we need toknow what is causing the attenuation,and how to calculate it. The obviousanswer is that the clutter and terrainirregularities are causing it. But if weattempt to look at this as direct clutterabsorption, we get far too much atten-uation. A single tree can cause up to15 dB of attenuation. My own study ofthe empirical data charts 1, 9, and 17of the International Telecommunica-tions Union (ITU) RecommendationP.1546-2 “Method for point-to-areapredictions for terrestrial services inthe frequency range 30 MHz to 3000MHz” (P.1546-2), shows that for shortranges up to 50 meters, the averageattenuation from direct absorption inaverage clutter is approximately 0.02dB/meter. Imagine the effect of a for-est, and the attenuation received in adirect radio path where a transmittedsignal would pass through a mile orso of trees and other clutter near thehorizon to get to an FM radio antennaon a car driving down the highway.So how does the signal even get tothis car driving in a forest?

It gets there by way of a phenome-non known as Radiative Transfer. Firstdescribed by Johnson and Schweringin 1985, and more recently set downin a functional model in “ A GenericModel of 1-60 GHz Radio Propagationthrough Vegetation- Final Report”, byQinetiq, for the U.K. Radiocommuni-cations Agency, Radiative Transferrefers to several combined phenome-na that describe the near-lossless scat-tering and reflecting, millions oftimes, of a radio signal under (groundreflection), over, and around vegeta-tion and man-made clutter. This takesabout 50 meters of distance to start tofunction, so the first 50 meters arereferred to as the first term, or Irimode, and can be described by a sim-ple, straight line Beer’s Law absorp-tion function, A = AB*radio pathdistance, where, at its simplest, the

AB term is a straight line formula, andthe cluttered radio path distance isthe theoretical actual central pathtaken by the radio signal through theclutter. From there, everything getsmore complicated. From a study ofthe data in P.1546-2, we find:

The second stage of RadiativeTransfer, (the total of which is knownas the Radiative Transfer Engine, orRTE) the second term, also identifiedby Qinetiq as part 1 (I1) of the ID(scatter phenomenon) a simple scatterphenomenon, only lasts a few meters,from about 50 to 60 or 65 meters intothe woods, and can, for most practicalpurposes, be ignored.

The next stage, the second term, I2of Id, an incoherent scatter functionterm, takes priority in determining theattenuation at about 60 to 65 metersinto the woods. For a case where boththe transmitter and receiver are at orunder the clutter “canopy top”, thismode continues to the first majorobstruction, or if no obstructions arefound, to the horizon.

By the way, the effective cluttercanopy top height in P.1546-2 can bederived to be at just over 25 m, usingan iterative solution of the Iri termequation to determine where the bconstant drops to zero in the P.1546-2data. As a result, the results of P.1546-2 are only valid for a receiver heightof less than 25 meters; a fact I suspectthat ITU Working Group 3, theauthors and caretakers of P.1546-2 isunaware of.

A fourth stage of RTE, I3 onlyappears when the transmitter isabove the canopy top, and thereceiver is at or under the canopytop. Here, a surface wave sets upwhen the canopy top distance abovethe radio path reaches about 225meters in length, that combines withthe delayed signal traveling underthe canopy top, when both reachthe receiver site, causing a similar,long slow cancellation null that con-tinues to the first major obstruction,or if no obstructions are found, tothe horizon.

The tricky part of this calculation



is that when the transmitter is abovethe horizon, the path of the radiosignal bends when it passes throughthe clutter canopy, as per Snell’sLaw. This significantly changes andshortens the path through thecanopy, in the same way that aalmost-horizontal flashlight beamaimed slightly down into the waterin a rectangular fish tank does notland on, or pass through the farwall, but bends down and lands onthe bottom of the fish tank.

I have assembled a computerspreadsheet that uses a Beer’s Lawfoundation, a Snell’s Law geometryfor the above-canopy scenario, andapproximations for Radiative Trans-fer and Diffraction. On this spread-sheet, one only has to plug the inputvalues into the input cells, to get anoutput (using only transmitter andreceiver heights, path length and fre-quency as inputs) that closely dupli-cates the results in the P.1546-2over-land Figures. A paper based onthis spreadsheet’s equations hasbeen proposed for presentation atthe 10th annual International Sympo-sium on Advanced Radio Technolo-

gies, to be held at the NIST BoulderLabs, in Boulder, CO on June 2-4,2009. The ITU Working Group 3 willbe there, as they are meeting atBoulder Labs following the Sympo-sium. This spreadsheet provides apract ical tool to quickly obtainP.1546-2 compatible results, and willbe released to the public followingthe Symposium; check the summerinstallment of this series to find outhow to obtain a download. Thespreadsheet also provides proof thatthese high-speed computer approxi-mation equations work very well,and can be used to replace thepatch in Longley Rice.

Replacing the patch with RTEcomputations is in the works; a newsubroutine, saalos, has been writtenand is under test, to implement theRTE calculations into a new ITM. Iwill be presenting (or will have pre-sented, depending on publicationdate of this article) on Sunday after-noon, April 13, at the NAB conven-tion in Las Vegas, in the BroadcastEngineering Conference “Advancesin Radio Technology” session, theresults of the use of a corrected,

completed, and updated new Long-ley-Rice computer model, and theaccompanying set of new core sub-routines, the first Model to fully con-sider and properly calculate IrregularTerrain with Obstructions, ITWOM.The new ITWOM includes use ofRadiative Transfer Engine equationsto replace the old patch; to computethe attenuation from clutter in theline-of-sight mode. I will present theresults by showing a comparison ofthe new results to the currentlyexisting ITM model by having madethe same runs using our test anddevelopment Longley-Rice wrap-around input-output software, SPLATwith PLOP modifications, run twicefor comparison, once with the oldITM core subroutines, and once withthe new ITWOM core subroutines.In the next article in this series, Iwil l be showing and discussingthese results (as best I can in blackand white).

© Sid Shumate and Givens & Bell,2008. For permission to reprint contactthe author Sid Shumate at [email protected]

Argentina BTS ChapterReportValentino Trainotti, Chair

On 5 December 2007, the Argentina BTS Chapter complet-ed its last conference session on “E and H Field GroundLosses in LF and MF Monopole Antennas.” The presentationwas given by Valentino Trainotti.

Thirty IEEE members were in attendances along withnon-members and students. The attendees were very inter-ested in this topic since there is very little technical infor-mation available on this subject.

On 17 December 2007 elections were held at the IEEEArgentina Section and new BTS Chapter Offices elected for2008 are

Chair: Valentino TrainottiVice Chair: Walter Gustaqvo FanoSecretary: Ruben CorreaTreasurer: Hector VilaThe Officers of the Argentina BTS Chapter look forward

to providing a series of interesting and informative techni-cal meetings for its members during 2008.

Japan BTS ChapterReportShuji Hirakawa, Chair

BTS Japan Chapter had two joint meetings with the Instituteof Image Information and Television Engineers (ITE) duringOctober 2007 to January 2008. A technical meeting was heldon 26 October 2007, at NHK Nagoya Station, Nagoya, Japan.There were three technical presentations on general topics forbroadcasting technology and one special topic for evaluationof reception environment for Digital Terrestrial TelevisionBroadcasting by Prof. Aiichiro Tsuzuku (Meijo Univ.). Theother technical meeting was held on 16-17 January 2008, atNagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Nagasaki, Japan. Therewere 18 technical presentations on antenna and propagationtopics including eight presentations by students and one spe-cial topic for “Development of Antennas in Japan” by GenteiSato (Antenna Giken Co., Ltd.).

The BTS Japan Chapter is planning to have one jointmeeting with the Institute of Image Information and Televi-sion Engineers (ITE) scheduled for 22-23 February 2008 atSunrise Kujukuri, Chiba, Japan.


BTS Taipei chapter jointly sponsoredwith National Taipei University ofTechnology the 2007 National Sym-posium on Telecommunications inTaipei on 23-24 November 2007.h t t p : / /www . c s i e . n t u t . e d u . tw /nst2007/ This is the major annualtelecommunications conference inTaiwan, with 420 attendees, 188 oralpapers and 117 posters in 2007. Twotutorials on WiMAX and Digital TVwere offered. Prof. Chun-Hsiung

Chen gave the distinguished lecture;Prof. Char-Dir Chung, Yi-Bing Lin,Huei Wang, and Jar-Ferr Yang werethe keynote speakers. The chapteralso participates in the newly formedalliance to promote education in dig-ital television and broadcast ing.Funded by the ministry of educa-tion, the alliance holds short cours-es, and supports curriculum andcourse content development.http://dtv.csie.ntut.edu.tw/


Taipei BTS Chapter ReportYing Li, Chair

Professor Chun-Hsiung Chen gave thedistinguished lecture in NST 2007,

Taipei

UKRI CEBT Joint Chapter Reportby Simon Sherratt, Chair

The IEEE United Kingdom and Repub-lic of Ireland Consumer Electronics andBroadcasting Joint Chapter (perhapsthe longest chapter name in history!)held a technical meeting just beforeChristmas at the University of Readingto host Dr Scott Linfoot from the Wire-less Multimedia Communications andSignal Processing Group, De MontfortUniversity. Scott’s talk was on the topicof “Second Generation Digital Televi-sion: The Systems and Challenges”. Hediscussed many interesting issues, butconcentrated on the forthcoming DVB

standards for broadcasting HD andbeyond, mainly concentrating on DVB-

T2, DVB-S2, DVB-RCS and DVB-RCT.Attendance was good and the freshmince pies went down very well alladding to Christmas atmosphere!

Scott takes over from me as chapterchair in 2008. May I thank all thosewho have contributed to the runningof the chapter over the past 4 years,particularly Stefan Mozar (VP Interna-tional Affairs, Consumer ElectronicsSociety) and I wish Scott all the best.

Simon SherrattIEEE UKRI CEBT chapter chair

Dr Scott Linfoot presenting “SecondGeneration Digital Television: The

Systems and Challenges”

Mark Your Calendars2008 future events of interest to BTS members- The 12th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics (ISCE2008)ISCE 2008 will be held 14-16 April 2008 in Algarve, Portugal. Details at www.ISCE2008.org.- 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting. Multiple Technologies for Multi-media. March 31-April 2, 2008, Las Vegas. Co-located with CTIA WIRELESS 2008 and IEEE WCNC 2008. Details atwww.ieee.org/bts- The 2008 NAB Show. Conferences: 11-17 April 2008 Exhibits: April 14-17. Las Vegas. Details atwww.nabshow.com- BroadcastAsia 2008 will be held from 17-20 June 2008 at Singapore Expo, Singapore. Details at www.broadcast-asia.com- IBC 2008 returns to the RAI Centre in Amsterdam next year, with the conference opening on 11 September and the exhibi-tion running from 12 to 16 September 2008. Details at www.ibc.org.- The NAB Radio Show will be held 17 - 19 September 2008 in Austin, TX. Details at www.nabradioshow.com- IEEE BTS 58th Broadcast Symposium will be held on 15 through 17 October 2008 at the Westin Alexandria Hotel, Alexan-dria, Virginia. For the latest information, keep checking the BTS web site at www.ieee.org/bts.



Edward Hobson II, Industry Leader and Former SMPTE President

Edward P. Hobson, II, vice presidentof National TeleConsultants and for-mer SMPTE president, died on Jan. 28in Nevada City, Calif., following a longillness. He was 59 years old.

Hobson was active in the field ofbroadcasting for more than 35 years,beginning his career while a studentat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute inTroy, N.Y. He first worked for theschool’s student radio station, WRPI,and began his professional career atWTEN-TV in Albany, N.Y. and WRGBin Schenectady. He joined the GrassValley Group in 1980 and spent 13years with the company, working asfield service engineer, sales managerand marketing manager. Hobson alsoworked in marketing management forGraham-Patten Systems and SonyElectronics. He was co-founder of

Omneon Video Networks. Hobsonjoined National TeleConsultants in2002.

National TeleConsultants’ managingdirector Chuck Phelan praised Hob-son’s contributions in the field ofvideo and broadcasting.

“The television and media technol-ogy world has lost one of its foremostinnovators and advocates,” said Phe-lan. “He was a media industry vision-ary who contributed greatly to NTC’sthought-leadership in applying thelatest technological solutions to thecreative and commercial needs of thebroadcast and media industries. Ed’sinfluence was international in scopeand his work at SMPTE, the IBC andother organizations served to advancemotion imaging throughout theworld.”

He was a fellow of the SMPTE andwas actively involved with thatorganization during his career, hold-ing the positions of governor, gover-nor at large, secretary/treasurer andeditorial vice president. He was elect-ed SMPTE president for the 2005-2006 term of office. Hobson was alsoa fellow of the British KinematographSound and Television Society.

Funeral services were held on Feb.2 in Nevada City and a memorial serv-ice was scheduled on Feb. 16 in Mer-cerville, N. J. Contributions in memoryof Hobson may be sent to the Hospiceof the Foothills or the American Can-cer Society.

© 2008 TV Technology. Reprintedwith permission. Photo courtesy ofSMPTE
















Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.445 Hoes LaneP.O. Box 1331Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331

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• Receive a special issue in 2008 on Quality Issues in Multimedia Broadcasting, bundled with the third issue if theIEEE Transactions on Broadcasting.

• Join BTS chapters worldwide, or in regions without chapters, promote new chapters.

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Documents

From the Presidentbts.ieee.org/images/files/newsletters/spring08.pdf · 2016. 1. 28. · Spring, 2009 January 20, 2009 IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter (ISSN 1067-490X)