WASHINGTON—A key university working on the development of the ATSC 3.0 standard successfully demonstrated advancements in interference cancellation and signal reception capabilities during a July IEEE event in Brazil.
Mackenzie Presbyterian University demonstrated the advancements during the 2026 IEEE International Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting (BMSB) in João Pessoa, Brazil.
The university conducted system integration and lab verification using hardware, software and algorithms developed or contributed by members of ATSC Implementation Team 5 - Tower Network (IT-5), including the University of the Basque Country (Spain), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI, Korea) and Western University (Canada).
The demonstration employed an Inter-Tower Communication Network (ITCN) and Geographically Segmented Localcasting (GSL) to improve spectrum efficiency by allowing signals from local stations to overlap geographically. It demonstrated how advanced signal processing techniques can facilitate the reception and decoding of lower-power signals in challenging co-channel interference environments.
For the demo, the desired signal was received at a power level 37 decibels below the stronger signal. Successful decoding under these conditions provides evidence of the potential for advanced interference cancellation techniques to support more flexible broadcast network architectures.
Ultimately, these capabilities could help broadcasters improve spectrum utilization, support localized content delivery and explore new network configurations as ATSC 3.0 deployments evolve.
“This demonstration is an important example of how ATSC 3.0 continues to evolve beyond traditional television broadcasting,” ATSC President Madeleine Noland said. “The ability to manage complex signal environments and make more efficient use of spectrum opens exciting possibilities for broadcasters.”
Brazil’s TV 3.0 has catalyzed ATSC members, in particular IT-5 members, to advance Localcasting technologies to improve spectrum efficiency and enable geographically targeted content delivery.
Responding to Brazil's needs, IT-5 members collaborated internationally to develop and demonstrate innovative interference-cancellation and signal-reception capabilities, highlighting the value of global technical cooperation.
These advancements provide a backdrop to the IEEE Broadcast Technology Forum, which opens Oct. 27 at NAB headquarters. The two-day gathering offers broadcasters engineers, technology developers and industry leaders a forum to explore the innovations shaping the future of broadcasting.
More information is available on the IEEE website.
