COLOGNE, Germany—Technologists representing the global RDK community participated in a rousing panel at the ANGACOM conference on June 5, covering everything from RDK support for DSL and EPON/GPON access networks to the availability of the RDK Accelerator to a clever “speed dating” themed take on why the RDK is a perfect platform for Apps.
Stuart Thomson, Editor of Digital TV Europe, moderated the session, which featured Steve Heeb, President and GM of RDK; Charles Cheevers, CTO/CPE at ARRIS; Albert Dahan, CTO and Co-Founder of Metrological; Wouter Cloetens, Director of Connectivity Software for Liberty Global; and Ricardo dos Santos Felix, head of fixed internet and voice for NOS.
Among the highlights: In order to support service providers active with fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) deployments, the RDK for Broadband stack will support GPON access networks by the first quarter of next year. That expansion will also include Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connectivity, sometimes used as a backchannel for satellite-based providers.
“This is a huge point of development and the big message at ANGA,” Heeb told the trade publication CSI, which was present at ANGA.
In his presentation, titled “The Metrological Guide to Speed Dating with OTT Content,” Dahan provided a humorous speed dating themed analysis of managing Apps with the RDK – from “be interesting” to “be friendly.” “Confidence is key,” he said. “RDK is a proven architecture — with 50 million devices and a growing catalog of apps, you can handle everything. You know you can rock it.”

Heeb expounded on the press release that came out coincident with the ANGA conference, about the 50+ million device milestone, and noted that the RDK community has expanded to over 400 companies and on average downloads the RDK over 6 million times per month. “RDK gives service providers the ultimate control over their software roadmaps and their connected home data — across video, broadband and IoT-connected devices,” he said, adding: “It’s a solid method for service providers to leverage device management and ‘big data’ to improve broadband and video performance.”