2010-07-13T19:19:05Z

Rafael2k:

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<div style="font-size:282%"> Opendigitalradio.org </div>
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<big> <b>Open and easy digital broadcasting techniques based on software radio - because digital radio transmission and development must also become democratized. </b></big>

Broadcasting is sometime considered, by the new generations, as a dying media that will be soon completely superseeded by Internet. However it is a nice, efficient and green way to reach masses without intermediaries but just using radio spectrum directly (despite the fact that the use spectrum is subject to licence). For these reasons and apart from the big public or private broadcasters interests, it has still an interest for local communities. In particular, it offers anonymous listening and is free-to-air (no subscription needed) which is of importance in poor countries or where freedom of information does not apply.

In radio, Analog transmission using AM, FM is still very popular but may be replaced in the future by digital techniques such as [http://www.worlddab.org/introduction_to_digital_broadcasting/dab_digital_radio DAB], [http://www.worlddab.org/introduction_to_digital_broadcasting/dab_plus_digital_radio DAB+], [http://www.worlddab.org/introduction_to_digital_broadcasting/dmb_-_mobile_television T-DMB], [http://www.drm.org/drm-the-system/technical-aspects/ DRM30] (Digital Radio Mondiale) or [http://www.drm.org/drm-the-system/drm/ DRM+] (for digitalisation of FM band).
In television, analog transmission using PAL or SECAM is being stopped in Europe and replaced by DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-H (for mobile) or other digital satellite or cable transmission techniques.

Transmitting using these technologies usually requires complex and costly equipment out of reach of individuals. However, since the democratization of software defined radio (SDR), a new field of possibilities opens for experimentation, micro networks, etc. In the longer term also if software based radio become also democratized in common receivers, it could even be possible to develop personalized broadccasting system based on free/open technologies for example. The combination of personal (Internet,..) networks and broadcast also offer interesting possibilities (see [http://www.imdalliance.org/ IMDA] and [http://www.radiodns.org/ RadioDNS]).

So this website will focus on tips, tricks and techniques to produce and receive digital broadcast signals. Most of the content is based on development from research centers, groups or individuals that did the "real work". The objective of this website is to follow developments, integrate them and show applications.

<big>'''Register to the [https://lists.saitis.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openradio mailing list]''' or '''follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/opendigiradio'''</big> to get informed, involved or for any questions.

==NEWS==

*<BIG>'''CRC just announced the release of the source code (GPL) of their software DAB OFDM modulator'''</BIG>
**See presentation http://www.slideshare.net/fralef/update-on-crc-open-and-free-dab-tools
**[http://mmbtools.crc.ca/content/view/44/71/ CRC-DABMod description and source code]

Older news
*[http://events.ccc.de/congress/2009/wiki/Radio_broadcasting CCC Workshop] on digital radio and software radio.

==DAB, DAB+ and T-DMB transmission==
[[Image:dab1.jpg|thumbnail|Home setup]]
DAB, DAB+ and T-DMB European digital radio and mobile television standards share the same transmission system. It based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthogonal_frequency-division_multiplexing OFDM] modulation and use 1.5MHz of spectrum in VHF television band 3 (or L-band in SHF). A transmitter is broadcasting a set of programs, called a multiplex. The system has been designed for mobile use and is robust up to 300km/h.

With the development of '''[http://mmbtools.crc.ca MMBTools set made by CRC]''', it is now possible to run a full transmission infrastructure on a laptop running linux and using a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USRP USRP] as [[RF]] hardware (with [[wikipedia:gnuradio|gnuradio]]) or any other similar device.

The transmission chain can be divided in 4:
*The encoding: encoding the sound to [[wikipedia:MPEG-1 Audio Layer II|MPEG-2 Layer II]] for DAB, [[wikipedia:High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding|MPEG-4 HE-AACv2]] for DAB+ or video in MPEG-4 H.264 for T-DMB.
*The Multiplexer: gather different streams, produce necessary signalling and output a single 2Mbit/s stream in ETI format (Ensemble Transport Interface)
*The Modulator: take the ETI stream and produce the complex [[wikipedia:baseband|baseband]] OFDM signal ready for upconvert at the desired radio frequency.
*The [[RF]] transmission performed by the USRP using appropriate RF daughterboards (Basic TX or modified RFX400).

[[CRC]] has recently opened the source code of the multiplexer ([[CRC-DabMux]]) and the modulator ([[CRC-DabMod]]). The MPEG-4 AAC encoding is subject to royalty payment and so CRC is selling it.

However thank to the modular approach from these tools it is possible to interface it with other implementations. If there's no other software OFDM DAB modulator implementation at the moment, for the encoding it is possible to re-use [[wikipedia:TooLame|TooLame]] that is an implementation of MPEG-2 Layer II.

===Software===

*[[Example of live re-transmission on DAB of an Internet Radio radio station]]
*'''[[Example of live re-broadcasting on DAB of many Internet radio stations]]'''
*[[Example of the creation of a multiplex stream of 2 DAB stations]]
*[[Example of the creation of a DAB+ transmission]]

[[Image:Logo mmb.png]]

Info pages on tools
*[[CRC-DabMux]] DAB/DAB+/T-DMB multiplexer
*[[CRC-DabMod]] DAB modulator
*[[CRC-Dwap.py]] USRP modulator and controller
*[[toolame]] MPEG-Layer II encoder
[[Image:dab_s_1.jpg |thumbnail|right| USRP]]
All questions and enquiries on MMBtools should be done directly on [http://mmbtools.crc.ca/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,55/ their forum]

Other tools:
*[http://code.google.com/p/dab-epg/ DAB-EPG API] from Global Radio Labs

===Hardware===

Find in this section some hardware experiment done with USRP RF front end like daughterboards or external devices (filters, power amplifiers).

The following Ettus daughterboards can be used for transmission in [[Band 3 Channels|VHF band III]]:

[[Basic TX]], [[RFX400 daughterboard modification|RFX400]] (after modification) or the new [[WBX]] board.

*[[Example of RF amplifier for DAB]] for VHF band III (never connect to an antenna without a license !)
*[[RFX400 daughterboard modification]] to operate in VHF Band III (around 200MHz)
*[[WBX daughterboard]] wide band coverage
*[[DAB in L Band]] test with the WBX daughterboard
*[[Filter]] to kill harmonics
*[[Carrier Shaping]] Mask
*[[Antenna]] for digital radio broadcasting
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==FM/RDS==
Despite the fact that FM is an analog technology, it is possible to generate it using software defined radio with enhanced possibilities such as simultaneous transmission of many FM stations.
*[[Simple FM transmitter using gnuradio]]
*[[Stereo FM transmitter using gnuradio]]
*[[FM transmission on many channels using gnuradio]]
*[[Multiple stations FM transmitter using gnuradio]]

*[https://128.2.212.19/wiki/RDS RDS on gnuradio]
*[http://mmbtools.crc.ca/content/view/45/73/ FM-RDS TX/RX using gr-rds] (from the CRC mmbTools website)

==Open DAB/DAB+/T-DMB software receiver==
[[Image:Phon3b small.jpg|100px|right]]
===Software defined DAB receiver (up to logical layer)===
*[[Gnuradio DAB constellation using gr-dab and USRP]]
*[http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~andrmuel/files/gnuradio/ Gnuradio blocks for DAB reception] (developments from Andreas Mueller, ETHZ)

===Openmokast ===
Software defined DAB receiver (from logical layer up to application layer).

Open Receiver project from CRC using RDI streams from DAB baseband receivers/decoders.

*http://www.openmokast.org

==Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM30, DRM+)==

[[Image:drm4.jpg |thumbnail | right | RX DRM ]]

[http://www.drm-sender.de/ Spark] free (but not free software) DRM30/DRM+ (also FM and AM) transmitter that supports direct USRP RF output.

[http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/drm/index.php?title=Main_Page Dream] free software DRM30 receiver and transmitter (see [http://www.olifantasia.com/projects/gnuradio/mdvh/examples/dream/required/ here] to use Dream with USRP).

[http://www.dsp4swls.de/sodira/sodiraeng.html Sodira] free DRM30/DRM+ receiver (can be used with USRP using GRC to grab the I/Q channels and output it to a [http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html VAC], then to [http://www.drm-sender.de/?page=tools#1 RateMonkey], and then to Sodira.

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==Other crazy techniques==

Under construction...

Transmission using a VGA card D/A converter as transmitter !
*DVB-T transmission (static signal): http://bellard.org/dvbt/
*Live FM transmitter : http://bk.gnarf.org/creativity/vgasig/