RDK Management announced that the Reference Design Kit (RDK) now provides additional support for the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard used throughout Europe and other parts of the world. Specifically, in-band DVB Service Information (DVB-SI) elements are now available to the RDK community. ARRIS (NASDAQ:ARRS) contributed DVB-SI components to the expansion.

In-band DVB-SI is intended to provide data reliability for TV service providers that operate one-way networks, or that are in the process of transitioning to two way networks. ARRIS' new contributions extend the RDK Media Framework (RMF) to support a common method for extracting DVB streams, and also provide an open source reference DVB implementation that can be adopted and extended by DVB-based operators and suppliers. The new RDK capability adds to previously supported DVB components such as teletext and subtitles released last year.

The RDK - a joint venture among Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) and Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) - is a pre-integrated software bundle designed to provide a common framework for powering CPE from TV service providers, including set-top boxes, gateways, and converged devices. DVB-SI provides RDK-based devices with in-band table of contents and data required for EPGs and other services.