Title: Field estimation for terrestrial digital broadcasting in Western part of Fukuoka

Authors: Junichi Honda, Kazunori Uchida, Masafumi Takematsu

Addresses: Department of Intelligent Information System Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, 811-0295, Japan. ' Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, 811-0295, Japan. ' Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, 811-0295, Japan

Abstract: Fukuoka tower plays an important role as main stations for several terrestrial digital broadcasting systems in Fukuoka area, which are going to completely replace the conventional analogue broadcasting systems in 2011. The input power of the digital broadcasting system is reduced about one-tenth of the old analogue system, but the new system needs many relay stations to maintain high quality of services. In this paper, focusing on two relay stations in the Western part of Fukuoka, we estimate the field distributions with respect to both the main and a relay station by using the discrete ray tracing method (DRTM). We also discuss the necessity of a relay station in conjunction with the blind zones of the main station due to shadowing in a mountainous area.

Keywords: terrestrial digital broadcasting; discrete ray tracing; DRTM; propagation; terrestrial surfaces; geographic information systems; GIS; field estimation; blind zones; terrestrial broadcasting; Japan; quality of service; relay stations; mountainous areas; mountains.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSC.2011.040345

International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing, 2011 Vol.1 No.2/3, pp.189 - 196

Received: 01 Jan 2011
Accepted: 04 Feb 2011
Published online: 26 Mar 2015 *

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