Cable industry consortium RDK Management has announced its entry into a strategic development deal to more closely align its open-source software stack with Broadcom's system-on-a-chip (SoC) hardware.
Announced at the RDK Americas Summit in Denver, the arrangement intends to provide a common software porting layer to simplify and standardize RDK deployments across CPE suppliers.
Reference Design Kit (RDK) is a preconfigured software stack designed to operate cable set-top boxes and gateways. RDK Management is backed by Comcast, Charter Communications and Liberty Global.
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“This new collaboration further strengthens our collective ability to meet the needs of service providers around the globe,” said Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK Management LLC, in a statement. “By simplifying and streamlining the underlying software, services providers and their CPE suppliers can focus more of their attention on enhancing customer experiences that drive business results.”
Added Rich Nelson, senior VP and GM of the set-top and cable modem division at Broadcom: “We believe that optimizing the RDK-SoC SDK porting layer will enable CPE manufacturers and service providers to deploy and iterate even faster. Broadcom has supported the RDK since its inception, having shipped millions of RDK-powered chipsets used by leading video and broadband services providers, and we look forward to its continued adoption across the globe.”
RDK Management said more than 25 service providers in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia are in various stages of evaluation, testing, trials or deployment of its software stack. It also said that more than 300 technology vendors are involved with RDK, including consumer electronics companies, chipmakers, software developers and systems integrators.