The enhanced DVB-S2 specification known at DVB-S2X was approved at the 76th meeting of the DVB Steering Board last week. DVB said it DVB-S2X offers spectral efficiency gains for professional applications by up to 20 to 30 percent and in some instances, gains of up to 50 percent. New operational modes allow channel bonding, combining multiple channels to increase flexibility and bandwidth.
The improvements in DVB-S2X include more choices for roll-of factors, additional modulation and forward error correction options, additional framing and scrambling options for very low SNR applications, and bonding of up to three channels. The optional super-framing structure allows use of advanced interference mitigation techniques for interactive broadband services. DVB-GSE/GSE-Lite protocols could facilitate migration to full IP services in the future.
DVB-S2X can be implemented using HEVC for video coding, allowing for broadcasts of HEVC coding via direct-to-home satellites.
"Throughout the technical activity, I was impressed to see European, U.S. and Far East companies, operating in different business environments such as broadcasting, VSAT or DSNG playing together, as if in a symphonic orchestra, to design a state of the art common system," said Albert Morello, the DVB TM-S2 chair.
DVB's executive director, Peter Siebert, added: "We are delighted that the Steering Board has now approved the new DVB-S2X specification and I would like to congratulate all the Members that have actively contributed to bringing about this step forward in updating the excellent DVB S2 standard. The satellite industry has been anxiously awaiting this standardization which will help it to improve profitability, interoperability and achieve further growth."
DVB has made the DVB-S2X extensions available online: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Second generation framing structure, channel coding and modulation systems for Broadcasting, Interactive Services, News Gathering and other broadband satellite applications: Part II: S2-Extensions (DVB-S2X) – (Optional) – DVB Document A83-2.
