An overview of the MPEG-2 Transport Stream in Digital Video Broadcasting 

Ghyslain Pelletier, Computer Science Department, University of Lulea, Sweden, {pelle@cdt.luth.se} 
 
Abstract 
 
This paper provides an overview of the transport mechanism of MPEG-2 as used as a part of the Digital Video Broadcasting
standards. It is written as part of the Multimedia Systems course at Lulea University of Technology as well as a first insight
into the BRaIN project’s main carrier technology focused upon. The paper will first present an overview of the broadcasting
transport protocols using the MPEG-2 TS data link layer, provide a general description of the transport stream packets and
finally review some characteristics of MPEG-2 TS data flow within DVB receivers. 
 
Keywords: wireless communication, digital video broadcasting, mobility, MPEG2-TS. 
 
Introduction 
 
MPEG-2 has been adopted as the standard encoding and 
delivery of digital television programs and broadcasting. 
 
While MPEG-1 defined how to store a file for local
retrieval, MPEG-2 defined both local storage and stream
transport. Although not specifying how the encoding,
multiplexing and decoding are to be performed, it defines
a data format as a Program Stream or a Transport Stream,
respectively for error-free mediums and for error-prone
environments such as Digital Video Broadcasting over
wireless links. In fact, the scope of the MPEG-2 TS is
broadcast over cable, over the air and over satellite links.
 
As we seek to combine the use of DVB as an IP carrier
together with other carrier technology within projects
such as CDT/BRaIN [7], it is therefore of importance to
 
understand the characteristics of MPEG-2 Transport  
Streams as well as DVB technology to identify those transport
aspects that needs further attention.