According to RDK Management, more than 40 million customer premises equipment (CPE) devices running RDK are currently deployed by operators worldwide, up more than 62% from same time last year. The RDK community membership is now more than 350 companies. RDK Management provided its annual update at the 2018 Connected TV World Summit in London.
"With more than 40 million RDK-based set-top boxes and broadband gateways deployed globally, it's clear that service providers, and their suppliers, have found a prime open source software development platform upon which to drive future growth and innovation," said Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK Management. "Our transparent approach to solving common technical challenges enables operators to focus their efforts on creating the UIs, applications and back-end data analytics that enhance the customer experience and business results. Our community will also be there with solutions, beyond TV and Internet, as the industry expands into IoT and new kinds of smart home services."
RDK software resides on the chipsets within CPE, below the application and services layer, and is designed to enable video and broadband providers to standardize certain technical functionality. The open source software provides a common interface to SoCs, acting as a kind of universal SoC adapter. Specifically, the RDK-V (video) software solution provides a common method to manage various video functions on set-top boxes such as tuning, IP video, third-party DRM, and media streaming. The RDK-B (broadband) software solution provides a common method to manage various broadband functions on gateways, such as home-networking interfaces, device management, diagnostics, and more.
RDK software also includes core interfaces used in smart home and IoT devices, including Bluetooth, Thread and Zigbee. The RDK community is developing open source software solutions for chipsets used in a variety of new devices, such as home video cameras and WiFi extenders.
Later this year, RDK Management will host its annual RDK European Summit for operators, concurrent with the annual IBC Show in Amsterdam in September, and will have a significant presence at the SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta in October.