Advanced Television

DVB Steering Board ratifies GSE-lite specs

November 20, 2013

At the 75th meeting of the DVB Steering Board, the new DVB-GSE-Lite (Generic Stream Encapsulation) specification was ratified. The specification will now be submitted to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) for formal standardisation. A GSE-Lite BlueBook will be published shortly.

The DVB-GSE protocol allows for efficient encapsulation of IP and other network layer packets over the second generation DVB physical layer specifications – DVB-S2, DVB-C2, DVB-T2, and DVB-NGH. The first generation of DVB standards only supported data transport using the MPEG format with a Transport Stream packet multiplex (MPEG-TS). DVB-GSE maximizes the efficiency of IP datagrams transport, thereby reducing the overhead by a factor of 2 to 3 with respect to DVB-MPE over MPEG-TS. This is achieved without any compromise of the functionalities provided by the protocol owing to the variable length Layer 2 packet size that is suited to IP traffic characteristics.

The GSE-Lite profile has been conceived to provide a simple, yet completely functional sub-set of DVB-GSE. The new profile reduces the memory and processing requirements at both the transmitter and the receiver. GSE-Lite is particularly aimed at consumer receivers, where cost is a major design factor. This includes cost efficient broadband reception such as internet via satellite. The profile has been created to take into consideration the increased use of IP packets. It does however retain many of the generic features of the full GSE specification. GSE-Lite is particularly targeted at the second generation DVB physical layer specifications DVB-S2, DVB-C2, DVB-T2, and DVB-NGH.

“DVB strives to provide up-to-date market solutions with is specifications and the GSE-Lite profile is a perfect example of this work. This new specification will enable the creation of cost savings for consumers purchasing receiver equipment designed for DVB second generation standards,” commented Peter Siebert, Executive Director, DVB.

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