Digital Switchover: An alternative solution towards broadband access for all citizens

The paper anticipates that the actions to be taken concerning the Digital Switchover (transition form analogue to digital broadcasting – DSO) in UHF are of strategic importance for the European Member Countries and most candidate ones, as long as DSO arises as a possible and complementary solution towards the deployment of Broadband Access Infrastructures, especially in less favoured regions. Taking into account the networking potentialities of the new digital TV in UHF (Terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting – DVB-T) and the broadband capabilities of the recent access technologies (i.e. WLAN, UMTS, etc.), the paper proposes a networking infrastructure that utilises the DVB-T stream in regenerative configurations for the realization of a common Ethernet backbone capable to interconnect all citizens within the broadcasting area. Citizens access this backbone via appropriate Distribution Nodes (DN), which make use of broadband access technologies. Such an approach enables for a multi-service capable environment (digital TV programmes, Interactive TV programmes, Internet access, e-mail, video/audio on demand, etc.), which is commonly shared among broadcasters, telecom operators and any active citizen who creates, manipulates and distributes his own content to the entire infrastructure (MPEG-21 approach).