As expected, the FLO Forum has approved QUALCOMM's over-the-air FLO (forward link only) technology and specified the protocols used over the air between the FLO network and FLO devices. The AIS (Air Interface Specification) includes a complete description of the physical layer with its OFDM and advanced forward error-correction techniques, as well as the Stream/Control and Media Access Layers. FLO enables the delivery of multiple multimedia streams over standard TV channel bandwidths. The technology is independent but complementary to cellular data networks like CDMA, EV-DO and WCDMA. QUALCOMM claims FLO offers several advantages over other OFDM-based mobile multicast technologies, including higher-quality video and audio, faster channel switching time, superior mobile reception, optimized power consumption and greater capacity.
For more on the mobile TV spec:
- see this press release