Distributing digital radio over an IP backbone

Abstract: Factum Electronics AB develops and manufactures equipment for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB). The increasing availability of IP networks has made the possibility to distribute the DAB signal, which is traditionally distributed over dedicated telecom links, over an IP backbone an interesting issue. This thesis investigates the possibilities to do this. Since distribution over IP is an unreliable service, it discusses techniques that can be used to eliminate the lack of reliability in IP. It also examines the advantages and drawbacks of using IP multicast, which would make it possible for many receivers to take part of the same signal. During the work behind this thesis, a protocol was developed including features to make the distribution more reliable. A prototype application including a client and a server was constructed to test and evaluate the protocol. Implementation issues of the protocol and test results drawn from the application are described in this thesis.