Pilot optimization for mobile services in ATSC 3.0

The Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) has released ATSC 3.0, the next-generation U.S. Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) standard. ATSC 3.0 allows a higher flexibility compared to the previous state-of-the-art DTT standard, DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial 2nd Generation). This higher flexibility allows broadcasters to adapt transmission configuration to network and reception requirements. Regarding pilot patterns (PP), whereas DVB-T2 provides 8 different PPs with a unique pilot boosting, ATSC 3.0 extends up to 16 different PPs, with 5 different boostings per each one. This paper is focused on the study of the PP and boosting combination that optimizes performance for time (Time Division Multiplexing, TDM) and power (Layered Division Multiplexing, LDM) multiplexing modes of ATSC 3.0 in mobility reception conditions. The selection of the optimum PP is particularly essential in LDM mode, because it must be shared between the two LDM layers.