What is on top of DVB-H? - An Introduction to DVB IPDC and Middleware Concepts for Interactive Applications

Inhalt:
This paper provides a snapshot of the evolution in the domain of DVB-H based mobile broadcast. As such it concentrates on two domains which recently have gained significant momentum: the finalization of the IP Datacast specification by DVB to enable the transport of services over DVB-H and several middleware approaches for interactive applications. The paper gives an overview of the IPDC specification. Especially the announcement and transport of DVB-H services are discussed. It also reports about first interoperable implementations of this specification as it has been demonstrated at recent fairs such as 3GSM World and CeBIT. While the transport of services seems to be resolved one obstacle for attractive services is still the absence of a standardized Middleware for interactive applications. Based on recent activities in this domain three different categories of Middleware approaches are identified in this paper and based on requirements of different deployment scenarios a justification of each of those categories is given.