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RDK Rides the Adoption Wave

Jeff Baumgartner — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 13:30:00 +0000

After starting out as a video-centric platform, the Reference Design Kit (RDK) has branched off to support broadband gateways as well.

The RDK, a preintegrated software platform for IP-connected set-tops and gateways managed by Comcast, Liberty Global and Charter Communications, has been ramping its adoption curve as more service providers lean on it for their next-gen services and a growing group of vendors add support.

To catch up on all things RDK, Multichannel News recently caught up with Steve Heeb, president and GM of RDK Management LLC. An edited transcript follows.

Multichannel News: Can you offer an update on RDK stats in terms of overall licensees as well as service providers that are on board?

Steve Heeb: Things are going great with the RDK thanks to the passion, and maturation, of our community. The RDK has become a prime software development platform supported by more than 300 technology companies across OEMs, SoC vendors, software developers, system integrators, and service providers.

More than 25 service providers across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia are members of the RDK community and are in various stages of evaluation, testing, trials, or deployment. Notable service providers that are implementing the RDK include: Comcast and Cox in the United States; Shaw, Rogers, and Videotron in Canada; Liberty Global, NOS, The Quickline Group, Vodafone (formerly Kabel Deutschland), and Tele Columbus in Europe; and Liberty Global in Latin America. And, just last month, Japan’s J:Com announced its intention to go RDK. On both the video and broadband front, operators are actively embracing the RDK open-source software solution to help power their next-gen devices.

MCN: Where do you expect the next wave of growth to come from?

SH: While RDK-V (video) continues to be a key growth driver, we anticipate that the impact of RDK-B (broadband) will likely be more significant over time. As service providers look to provide a range of new services for connected-homes, the need for common underlying software in broadband gateways is growing more acute. RDK-B provides this common method to manage various broadband functions, such as home-networking interfaces (e.g. WiFi and MoCA), device management, diagnostics, and smart home/IoT interfaces (e.g. Bluetooth, Thread and Zigbee). Over the past year, we’ve seen greater interest from service providers, and wider adoption of RDK-B by leading chipset manufacturers and OEMs.

MCN: What are some of the latest advancements or enhancements that have been made to RDK?

SH: RDK-V has moved to embrace the WPE [Webkit Pure Embedded] browser, a high performance, resource efficient implementation of WebKit specifically targeted for embedded software devices such as IP set-top boxes.

Related to this, we have ports of the RDK running on open test platforms such as Raspberry Pi and x86 PC emulators. We use these devices as our primary test platforms when making our software releases. On the RDK-B side, we continue to work to drive greater standardization with some of the key silicon vendors. In addition, we have received positive feedback on some of our device management features such as WebPA & xconf which enables real time control, configuration and feedback from RDK-B based devices.

MCN: What are some features that are on the roadmap?

SH: Our roadmap is driven by the RDK community, so they set the course. For RDK-V, we are looking at opportunities to standardize common elements of the application framework enabling common APIs and easier portability of premium apps across RDK implementations. For RDK-B, more and more service providers see the RDK as the foundation for a range of new IoT services, so you can expect to see more on that front. Plus, you can expect to see new RDK “software profiles” for devices in the connected home from cameras to Wi-Fi extenders and more.

MCN: We sometimes think of RDK being for set-tops and broadband gateways, but are there other devices that will fit into the RDK ecosystem, like smart home hubs and other IoT-style devices?

SH: Any device in the connected home today relies on an OEM with chipsets, and these OEM/chipset solutions have a software layer. Right now, much of this software is proprietary and widely divergent, making it a challenge for service providers to deliver unified experiences or gather common key data needed to serve their subscribers. RDK-B offers the ability to help address these underlying issues, while still giving companies the flexibility to innovate on their customer-facing software. So, there are certainly plenty of new kinds of devices that could benefit from the RDK.

MCN: As you try to gain more ground in the market, what is your biggest challenge to overcome with respect to service providers? That they’ve already picked a horse to ride for their next-gen platforms?

SH: If there is one thing that is universal, it’s that service providers tend to have very particular points of view when it comes to their next-gen platforms. Our role at RDK Management LLC is to be an educational resource for them, and to facilitate the sharing of best-practices among our community. Fortunately, we now have the scale we need to be self-sustaining, and our software is available in open-source for service providers to adapt as they see fit.

We assume that the video and broadband landscape will be even more competitive in three to five years and that operators will require a modern software platform with access to real time data to run their products and services in order to be responsive to customer demands and competitive solutions. The RDK can provide this and act as a catalyst that enables real time data collection, the ability to implement agile software development, and the ability to utilize a Dev-Ops product development and operating methodology. It’s really powerful with the results you can achieve. The main misconception is that you have to transition to a Dev-Ops methodology day one, and that’s not true.

The beauty of the RDK is that the operator can utilize the RDK for what best fits their operating model. If they want to start fast, great. If they want to start slow, they can outsource the software management to a SI or OEM and transition to an agile software development and Dev-Ops product methodology on their own timeline. The key is that they will have real time data to help make this decision, and they are in control of the schedule.

MCN: Comcast, Liberty Global and Charter (via Time Warner Cable) have been heading up RDK for years. Has there been any interest from other companies to become a formal part of the co-venture?

SH: We are continually talking with service providers and technology companies about ways to become more involved with the RDK. We operate the RDK as an open source project, so we are open to suggestions by companies in the community, but most companies prefer to be involved through our technical working committees similar to other successful open source projects.

MCN: For operators that are outside that mix, what avenues are available to them to voice their needs or influence the direction of RDK?

SH: Like I previously mentioned, the RDK is an open-source community established to serve the needs of service providers and technology companies. Any service provider can contribute or receive code. They can join working committees, participate in RDK events, and propose code changes or roadmaps, and more. Our mantra is “vote with your code,” which means all of community members, not just service providers, have the ability to influence the direction of the RDK.

RDK’s Vision Extends Beyond Cable

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 04 May 2015 12:00:00 +0000

After originating as a Comcast-led effort, the Reference Design Kit has been spreading its wings and its influence as the technology reaches a wide range of cable operators and suppliers across multiple continents.

The overarching goal of RDK Management LLC, a joint venture managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global, is to bring Web-like speed and innovation to the development of set-tops and video devices via a pre-integrated software stack. It’s not an app platform, but work is underway to make it easier for developers to create apps or port existing ones to the RDK ecosystem.

RDK Management now touts a licensee base that includes 25 operators, and about 220 additional companies from a group that includes CE manufacturers, chipmakers, software developers and systems integrators. At last check, more than 5 million set-top box builds are based on RDK software.

Heading up RDK Management’s efforts is Steve Heeb, the Comcast executive who was named president and general manager of the organization in September 2013. He recently discussed the status and direction of the RDK with Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner.

MCN: What are some of RDK Management’s biggest accomplishments since you took the helm in the fall of 2013?

Steve Heeb: From a macro perspective, the biggest thing is we have three strategic operators that have endorsed this entity (Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global), and its objective is to make the RDK available in code format to anyone. And when we say anyone, it’s telco, cable, satellite. It doesn’t matter. That’s a dramatic change from [several] years ago.

Having these companies support a solution that’s available to all and to transition to a global set-top process is probably one of the biggest accomplishments. It’s a pretty big step for the industry.

The second one is that it is a global solution and we have activity in North America, in Europe, Latin America and Asia. This is just a dramatic [change] from the old U.S. cable industry. It’s truly a global shift.

MCN: Now that RDK is targeting operators outside of the cable industry, what progress have you made with telcos and satellite operators?

SH: We’ve had quite a bit [of activity] in multiple continents. We have telcos and satellite companies who are licensees. We’re doing a fair bit of work, but are keeping it very quiet. We’re not an operator; we can’t speak for the operator. We’re happy to have these folks working with us, but it’s up to them to talk about them. We really hold that kind of sacred.

There are quite a few cable operators who have not announced being a licensee, but in total there’s 20- or 25-plus operators who have signed up. That’s a combination of cable, telco and satellite.

MCN: What are your top priorities for the rest of this year?

SH: A top priority is to continue the RDK awareness. People ask about the benefits and why should we use it and why is it different. It is a dramatically different solution. The benefits are incredible and you have to drill down to see the big list of operational development, and what it can do for you with speed of innovation and the ability to be a modern company.

Now that we do have operators who are in phases of development, testing, trials and deployment, the second [priority] is to support these operators, anywhere from the code to helping them educate their companies.

The third one is to … work with some of the companies out there who are not the operators to develop a user interface and turnkey solution that goes on top of the RDK. The RDK does not [focus on] revenue-generating services and interfaces, like the UI, VOD and the DVR.

There are quite a few companies, ranging from SeaChange, Espial, Alticast, Arris, Cisco … we’re working with them to bring turnkey solutions to operators.

MCN: Let’s talk a bit about this joint venture with Metrological you announced pertaining to an app emulator for the RDK. What’s the status of that project and what is the broader significance of it?

SH: First of all, it is not a joint venture. Metrological developed this app platform. They came to us and said, “The world out there is bigger than just the RDK community.”

The apps are on top, so Metrological put together this app platform where you don’t have to be an RDK licensee or part of the community, but you can just test your app, any app in the world, put it on the Metrological app platform, and Metrological takes care of integrating that into the RDK.

It’s a platform that allows anybody to emulate how their app would work on the RDK without having to be an expert in the RDK or doing any RDK code work. It’s not exclusive. We work with other app platforms. Nobody’s choosing winners.

This is one of the objectives with us working with the UI and app platforms, where we don’t develop it, but we will help ensure that it works with the RDK.

MCN: Have you attracted a lot of developer interest?

SH: With the app companies, their relationship is really with the operator. But they do talk to us, whether they work directly with the RDK or whether they’re an app platform that the operator brings on top.

The RDK has emulators and test suites, so they really like those … You can do a lot of work now in which your app will run on the RDK, so if the operator chooses that version of RDK, it will just work. The old days of trying to do all of this legacy, one-off integration where you don’t have access to the code and someone else is in charge of integrating your app — it’s the opposite of that. There’s transparency, development kits, test suites. Every update that happens, everybody gets them.

MCN: Most of your announced operators are large tier-1s. What kind of work is underway to attract more independent, tier-2, tier-3 operators to the RDK?

SH: Everybody thinks big operators are the only ones that can innovate. We’re working with some operators with a couple of million subs, versus tens of millions. These are extremely innovative companies that have heavy competition, and the whole philosophy of the RDK fits right in.

There are also operators with less than 1 million subs. We have some categories between 1 and 5 [million], and of course we have some big operators. And some people want to do the work on their own, while others are doing this kind of turnkey/outsourcing [approach]. All of this is in constant development, but there are definitely a couple of companies you’ll see, when they’re willing to come out about what they’re doing. It’s not just a big operator thing.

Here’s a benefit to the source code — everything one of these big operators or small innovative operators do, if they make a change to the code, it comes back into the trunk, and everybody has access. The big operators get the innovation from the smaller operators, and small operators get the scale benefits and the integration into the SoC (systems-on-chip) that the big operator may have.

RDK at INTX

A sampling of RDK members that will demonstrate their wares on the floor:

• Arris Group (booth 101): Demos will include what they are billing as the world’s first RDK-Bbased DOCSIS 3.0 Residential Gateway. Arris will also show its first HEVC-capable 4K and 1080p MoCA- and WiFi- based RDK- enabled IP set-tops.

• Alticast (booth 1319): Will show multiple operator user experiences on set-tops operating RDK 1.3 and RDK 2.0, and demo how the vendor’s Collaborative Development Environment (CDE) can streamline RDK product development.

• Cisco Systems: Will demonstrate its Snowflake 14 interface on RDK, and RDK-B-based devices.

• Cognizant/itaas (booth 2115): Will feature an RDK-B emulator, RDK development tools, and a predictive analytics product designed to prevent device failures and minimize costs using automated processes.

• Comcast (booth 215)

• Espial Group (booth 1741): Will demo TV user experiences based on HTML5 and RDK, and showcase video apps, including the guide and VoD, on multiple RDK-based set-tops.

• Humax Americas (booth 1327): Will demo a RDK 2.0 in a headless gateway and in 4K IP client solutions, as well as its “Prism” user experience based on HTML5, featuring both RUI and CVP-2.

• Metrological (booth 2341): Demos will include an RDK App Emulator, enabling developers to remotely create and test apps for RDK-based devices. The demo will show the process of testing and publishing a live app in an operator-branded TV app store that is deployable on an RDK-based device.

• Pace (booth 1507): Will demo a prototype 4K-HEVC set-top box running the Pace Elements RDK Application Framework, alongside a variety of RDK solutions that have been deployed around the world.

• S3 Group (booth 100): Will showcase its processes for managing the integration of licensee-contributed code changes and product releases of the official code.

• ThinkAnalytics (booth 1501): Will show off individualized recommendations for up to eight viewers in a household on Liberty Global’s Horizon TV platform across legacy and RDK-based set-tops.

RDK Management: 220-Plus Licensees

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 20:00:00 +0000

More than 220 companies, including a group of 25 made up of cable operators, telcos and satellite TV service providers, have licensed the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the preintegrated software stack for IP-capable set-top boxes, video gateways and, soon, broadband devices.

RDK Management, the joint venture of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global, announced the updated figures Monday (April 27) ahead of next week’s INTX: The Internet & Television Expo in Chicago.

RDK Management said community membership and operator licensees have grown about 60% over the past 12 months. More than 5 million devices with RDK have been deployed so far. The bulk of that total has come way of Comcast and its X1 platform .

RDK licensees include a mix of CE manufacturers, chipmakers, software developers, system integrators and pay TV operators. Of the latter group, Comcast, TWC, Liberty Global, Rogers Communications, Kabel Deutschland, and J:COM are among the known MSOs to license the RDK. RDK Management said providers from North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia have all inked licenses.

Expanding beyond the initial video-centric set-top box solution (RDK-V), companies backing RDK are developing a version for broadband devices called RDK-B. RDK-B is currently being developed by “key” operators, SoC companies and OEM companies, with an anticipated release in the second half of 2015, RDK Management said

“The RDK provides a modern software platform on which pay TV providers worldwide can provide new video services to customers,” Steve Heeb, president and GM of RDK Management, said in a statement. “he community is starting to take advantage of the benefits of having source code access for their STB software, and the RDK continues to gain traction around the globe – as will be showcased prominently at INTX 2015.”

Multichannel News will feature a Q&A with Heeb in the April 4 issue, along with a snapshot of RDK-powered demos expected to appear on the INTX show floor.

Some of the RDK member companies exhibiting at next week’s show include:

ActiveVideo (soon to be part of an Arris/Charter Communications joint venture)
Arris Group
Alticast
Cisco
Cognizant
Comcast
Ericsson
Espial Group
Humax Americas
Intel
Metrological
Pace (in the process of merging with Arris)
Samsung
S3 Group
SeaChange International
Symphony Teleca
Technicolor
ThinkAnalytics
UXP Systems
ValueLabs
Visible World
Wipro