Multistream

Multistream is a main advantage of the DVB-S2 standard that allows users to aggregate a number of independent transport streams or IP streams into one satellite carrier in a fully transparent manner, maintaining the integrity of the original content.

At the transmit side, the individual input streams are divided in User Packets. The User Packets of one stream are all part of baseband frames which have the same Input Stream Identifier (ISI) in their header. The baseband frames of all streams are merged and transmitted after encoding.

At the receive side, streams are reconstructed by separation based upon the ISI values in the baseband headers.

Benefits of Multistream

• No need for re-multiplexing at the towers
• 1-4 multiplexes distribution with only 1 Receiver (e.g. compared with 4 IRDs!)
• Less satellite bandwidth needed compared with DVB-S
• Distribution of multiple services (terrestrial TV and IP) in a single carrier.
• Ability to saturate the transponder gaining up to 12% bandwidth above gain brought by DVB-S2
• Single Frequency Network (SFN) compliant
• Lower number of frequencies necessary
• Fully interoperable, transparent and compliant with the DVB-S2 standard
• Applications include primary distribution of digital terrestrial TV (DTT) and DSNG contributions where one or more video channels are combined with IP-based services