FLO Physical Layer: An Overview

This paper provides an overview of the physical layer of the Forward Link Only (FLO) Air Interface. The FLO Air Interface is a key component of the MediaFLO system developed by QUALCOMM as an alternative mobile multicast technology for the efficient transmission of multiple multi-media streams to mobile devices using TV and multi-media channel bandwidths in VHF, UHF, or L-band. The main concepts and features of the FLO Air Interface including the modulation and coding techniques used, the frame structure, and the different sub-channels within the physical layer are described. The available data rates as well as other characteristics of FLO are also described. Finally, the performance of the FLO physical layer in representative channel environments is presented