Hybrid Mobile Interactive Services combining DVB-T and GPRS

Scarce wireless bandwidth and limited capabilities of cellular systems demand new, complementary techniques for the provision of wireless multimedia services. Hybrid systems coupling for example the digital terrestrial television (DVB-T) system with cellular communication systems provide a feasible solution to this problem. This paper describes a hybrid system, composed of DVB-T and the new GSM packet-switching standard GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) to enable wireless multimedia services. The coupling is performed by an IPbackbone network. For the development of the server structure we rely on existing models for hybrid systems from literature. The DVB-T network, which is designed for the broadcast of television programs, is a key component of our concept to supply interactive broadcast services. We discuss an interactive, electronic multimedia-newspaper service and a near-media-on-demand service “MP3-music-delivery” as examples. Besides the system concept, our prototype implementation of the MP3-service is described. The progress in the development of compact multimedia handheld terminals makes it possible to address a rapidly growing market for mobile applications with such service ideas. However, the regulation of broadcasting and the strategies for the introduction of DVB-T has to be regarded, as it will exert big influence on the commercialization of such service offerings.