Objective
The basic goal of the MOBILITY project is to provide live TV services via satellite to people on the move for those cases in which satellite will be the adequate solution. The opportunity of providing real time TV broadcasting services to mobiles (such as ships, cars, trains, aeroplanes) by satellite appears as an attractive and demanded option given the wide coverage capability of geo-satellites. The project will resolve the technological challenges of the user terminal required to receive DVB-S signals and hence applications-business services on board mobile vehicles (specially ships). A trial and demonstration phase will be carried out in order to test the prototypes performance. Close coordination with other ACTS and IST projects with mobile services will be made (MOTIVATE, SECOMS & DRIVE).
Objectives:
To research on the technical challenges of digital TV provision to maritime mobiles.
To develop a new digital DVB-S receiver for the mobile environment (specially for ships)
To establish a roadmap for the practical implementation of a fully operational European System to position strategically the EU actors.
To complement and make clustering with other IST projects dealing with the mobility concept based on satellite.
Work description:
The virtual home environment concept try to extend the home communication entertainment and information capabilities wherever users go. Given the fact that TV is a key consumer product in home (with penetration rates around 100% in EC), it is essential to offer TV services in the development of the virtual home environment. Then it becomes necessary to implement technical means to offer TV to people on the move. The basic goal of the MOBILITY project is then to provide live TV satellite services to people on the move for those cases in which satellite will be the adequate solution (in particular, the maritime case). Being a very novel and desired service for the EC citizens, it is clear the importance of the MOBILITY project for improvement of the quality of live of EC citizens. First, the project will define the scenarios, which are the inputs for the definition of the requirements for the technology development and the service demonstration. Based on that, the mobile DVB-S receiver will be developed. A fast pointing antenna mechanism will allow the terminal to track the GEO satellite regardless of the ship movement. Finally, the results will be the core of an assessment of the service performance and the roadmap for the operational follow-on system. Obviously, co-ordination with other EC projects and EC organised activities will be done, as well as dissemination and public demonstrations of the project.
Milestones:
Mobile DVB-S receiver development solution for ships:
Development of antenna, receiver front-end, pointing mechanism and software.
Industrial aspects analysis of the developed receiver and migration path from prototype to mass market oriented product.
Trials and pre-demonstrations.
Assessment of the service performance.
Exploitation and dissemination plan.
Strategic position of EU actors and improvement of quality of life.
MOBILITY project has designed, developed and tested and unique solution for the provision of DVB-S services to any kind of maritime vehicles, making possible the reception not only of TV in real time, but also the provision of any multimedia service encapsulated in DVB-S frames. Major achievements of the project can be summarized as follows:
1) Needs identification for the maritime scenario, where the problematic of communication in this particular environment where detailed, thinking in to improve the already existing ones. The ships motion for the Mediterranean Sea were studied and incorporate to the previous analysis of the PAT system.
2) Specification for the solution proposed in terms of PAT parameters range, ship motion, mechanical requirements for the antenna, IF and RF specification.
3) Once achieved this two results the design of the antenna was started. A meticulous design for the physical antenna system was carried out considering the most convenient technology able to adapt to the maritime conditions. Lot of simulations supported the final design, which ended in an hybrid solution (mechanical and electronic appointment) based in an array of printed patches and an integration of IMU-GPS hardware/development of software for the pointing and acquisition system.
4) The development of each part designed respected the interfaces definition in order to reach the best integration.
5) Successful integration of the different parts, obtaining a perfect work of the antenna, PAT and Test bed equipments.
6) Finally the antenna was tested in the real scenario installing the system during 45 days in the Juan J. Sister ship of Compania Trasmediterranea, which cover the route between Cadiz and Las Palmas (Canary Islands). The antenna was working during 2 round trips (each round trip = 8 days), and successfully results were achieved receiving the transmission of VIA DIGITAL
7) MOBILITY has supposed the first European solution for maritime communications and has actively contributed to the European Task Force for Mobile Satellite Communications (ASMS-TF).
8) The project has disseminated its results in several fora as Telecom I+D, Concertation meetings and even out of the project life in the Summit of Aveiro 2003.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
28023 MADRID
Spain