Patent ID: 8806557

Claim:
A method of planning a single frequency digital broadcasting network comprising at least one elevated transmission station and a plurality of low-height transmission stations, the method performed by a computer system comprising a processor and a memory encoded with program instructions that, when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to perform the method, comprising: subdividing a geographic area of interest into a plurality of area elements; simulating, using the processor, a distribution of the electromagnetic field originating from the transmission stations in every one of said area elements; in at least one area element of the geographic area of interest, calculating, using the processor, delays among signals received from the transmission stations based on the simulated electromagnetic field distribution; and based on said calculated delays, calculating, using the processor, transmission delays to be deliberately applied to the low-height transmission stations of said plurality, wherein said calculated transmission delays are adapted to reduce delays of the signals coming to the at least one area element from the elevated transmission station with respect to the signals coming from the low-height transmission stations; and applying said calculated transmission delays to the signals transmitted by the transmission stations of said plurality, wherein said calculating transmission delays comprises: forming a first set of transmission delays, inserting the first set of transmission delays in a solution list, performing a refinement, using the processor, by varying randomly the set of the transmission delays, and updating the solution list.