Beyond Broadcast – A Hybrid Testbed for Mobile TV 2.0 Services.pdf

Beyond Broadcast – A Hybrid Testbed for Mobile TV 2.0 Services Raimund Schatz, Norbert Jordan, Siegfried Wagner Telecommunications Research Center Vienna – ftw. A-1220 Vienna, Austria {schatz, jordan, wagner}@ftw.at Abstract Current market research indicates high future demand for broadcast services such as Mobile TV. While underlying competing bearer technologies are being extensively tested and refined, the focus keeps shifting towards interactive services on top of mobile broadcast. In order to investigate the possibilities of interactive mobile TV, projects require testbeds for convergent architectures and services. However, related technologies and standards still need to mature and key components such as open, programmable TV- enabled phones are still missing. In this paper, we present our testbed for mobile interactive TV for early stage technology and application prototyping, with a focus on mobile client and network aspects. Furthermore, we illustrate the utilization of the system and outline selected future development issues concerning mobile interactivity options. 1. Introduction Mobile TV services are widely considered as major future growth driver in mobile multimedia markets. According to market research firms such as Datamonitor, the mobile television market is set to grow exponentially – by 2009, 69 million people worldwide are expected to subscribe to mobile television services, generating total revenue of $5.5 billion [1]. Such positive signals have triggered a growing number of technological and commercial trials in Europe. Furthermore, it is expected that interactivity will add significant value to mobile broadcast service offers. Common examples are quiz shows, votings, chat as well as personalized EPGs and advertisements. Mobile phones are prime candidates for delivering such interactive next-generation mobile TV, since they natively provide the required back- channel via IP-based cellular 2G