RDK License

SoC vendors are advised to get into an agreement with RDK Management LLC to obtain the free license so as to use the complete RDK Code base in their platform. More details about license is available at https://rdkcentral.com/licenses/ . Please email info@rdkcentral.com if you have additional questions about licenses or membership

MSO can choose preferable device from OEM and also get details from SoC vendors, SoC vendors will already have ported RDK on top of their SoC so they will be having all the features supported in SoC so based on that MSO's can select a OEM with preferred SoC platform and then they can start integrating features that MSO requires on top of the OEM layer so that they can have final product.

This document will detail the recommended step by step procedure of adopting RDK by a MSO.

Product Specifications

The first step to get a fully functional product is to define the product features and see if they meet the standard requirements. See here to know what are all the features available in RDK-V and can implement based on your requirement. SoC can use this as a guide while engineering the RDK SoC platform.

Device Firmware

Operators can make use of the details available below to start developing a Yocto build to do the final additions of MSO specific changes to the device. This will help MSO to add their own final product features as well as MSO specific patches/changes.

Yocto Manifests

Yocto based RDK builds are flexible enough to easily accommodate SoC / OEM / MSO / third party changes. The starting point for the Yocto builds are a manifest file. The manifest file is an xml file that contains details of the different open embedded Yocto build layers, meta layers , rdk as well as open source components that needs to be fetched during initial stages ( than during bitbake time ) as well as the URL locations from where the data can be pulled. A set of sample manifests that can be used as a template for developing SOC specific manifests are given below

MSO meta-layer creation

To match the layered structure of Yocto builds, a MSO specific layer is used to include MSO changes and additions. Use the yocto-layer create sub-command to create a new general layer.

$ yocto-layer create mylayer

There shall be separate device (machine) configuration file (.conf) for each device for the particular chip family for which the layer is intended for. The general naming terminology for MSO layer is meta-rdk-<soc name>

The device (machine) configuration file shall include corresponding include (.inc) file to get machine configuration details.

Adding the Machine Configuration File for the new MSO

Each meta-* layer should have a conf folder containing the machine configuration we can select during 'source setup-environment' . Optionally it can also have a class/classes folder for keeping information that is useful to share between metadata files.

To add a machine configuration, you need to add a .conf file with details of the device being added to the conf/machine/ file. In the machine conf file the basic machine configuration should be defined.

Once the conf files are in place, the layer details need to be added to the corresponding package group file. Based on platform, the package group file will be grouped into multiple files with one bitbake fiile and multiple append files. MSO can add the MSO layer details to required package group append files applicable to the target device build to get the features into the final build

MSO Specific Apps

MSOs will be having a range of MSO specific applications from simple generic device information apps to MSO specific content applications. RDK's Yocto based layered structure allows MSOs to easily integrate, upgrade and maintain their apps in their RDK based IP Set-top devices. For more details on App support in RDK, please refer Applications  as well as MSO Platform Firmware for the engineering details.

MSO Specific UI

RDK supports usage of multiple User Interface in the RDK IP Set-top devices. MSOs can choose from among the already available UIs that are available with RDK as well as develop and use their own UI. For more information on UI support in RDK, please refer User Interface.

Based on resident app reference implementation Operator need to bring up the UI.

App Support

Along with the MSO specific apps, MSO can support a lot of generic apps in RDK IP Set-top devices by taking advantage of RDK Support for Native as well as Web Apps in IP based Set-top platforms. MSO can easily port native apps in their platforms (for some third party apps, MSO need to obtain certification from those third party) or can host their own app store and then use Web Apps to show content. For more information on App support in RDK, please refer Applications.

Provisioning Support

MSO needs to add provisioning support in device so that Device provisioning can be done once deployed at customer premise. The steps for this varies based on platform as well as MSO type.

Provisioning support refers to the scenario such as when you launch Sample app on your mobile it takes to login page and so you have to login there, account there i.e. actually the app has to authenticate your login.

Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is an inevitable part of the CPE life cycle. MSO, based on their disaster recovery strategy, could add support for this in the device. While there are some generic guidelines followed across industry, there is no single step that works for all. MSOs could easily add their business logic to RDK as part of MSO firmware engineering as described in MSO Platform Firmware.

As an operator they have to handle crashes/disaster happens and support any factory reset like OTA upgrade.

Test & Certification of devices

Once the device engineering is completed from MSO side, the device can be test and verified easily by the Certification support provided by RDKM. Details of coverage as well as major cases are explained here .

Certification suite is available at RDK IP Set-top Product Certification and for TDK test app please refer TDK-V Documentation.

Things required for MSO to get started

To start with RDK, MSO needs

• RDK license
  • Operator has to get a RDK license and then any premium apps porting operators should have a project agreed with the corresponding premium app like for youtube it is google to access premium app/any app's plugin or code implementation for app.
• There should be a Commercial License Agreement between operators and premium apps.
• Project agreement with OEM's
• UI integration with RDKServices and UI Specific customizations
  • Operator specific task on RDK are customization of UI to adopt RDKServices so as part of customization of UI they can refer the resident app implementation. As part of customisation of UI,OTA upgrade is one of the first main point .As an operator they need to get the OTA backend server . Xconf is the RDK recommended OTA method.It is not mandatory this can be optional(Like the firmware update plugin is available there readily they can directly use that infrastructure otherwise they need to configure their headend with the xconf server.)
  • Operator specific requirements has to be implemented by operator eg.frontpanel related or any customisation of UI and any such requirements.

Things available in RDK

• Pre-certified stack for third party apps is available in RDK as a Common Port Architecture. For details see Common Port for Native Apps.
• RDKServices are available to customize RDKService plugin plugout components for all the stacks mainly Bluetooth, Wifi and front panel, power manager, device settings etc, pre-set apps and basic architecture of OTA are available.

Things MSO need to do

What Operators need to get is :

• As a Operator, the certification for the operators device has to be done by them(eg: for premium apps).
• Customization of boot loader for operator specific , operator specific UI, Operator specific any customization on the stack such as Power manager(Power specifications to Set-top box to consume only specified power)
• Some Customization of remote and operator specific operations such as other configurations settings and their persistent areas(like premium app logo size on operator device).