1. Update on
CRC Open and Free
DAB Tools
François Lefebvre
Communications Research Centre, Canada
WorldDMB TC, February 18, 2010
1

2. Candadian Context
Why/How Open/Free
mmbTools
Openmokast
CRC tools limitations
Licences, Governance, Copyrights
What Next ?
2

3. Canadian Context
- A few L-band DAB systems still operating in the
largest markets
- No business case for “Digital Radio” in spite of the
pressure from USA
- No interest for HD Radio by broadcasters
- No regulation in place for the use of the extra
channels provided by HD Radio Multicasting
- December 2009: Industry Canada began
Consultation about the future of L-band
3

4. Canadian Context
IC proposes :
Flexible use (fixed, mobile and
broadcasting) to deliver subscription
broadcasting, multimedia, mobile or fixed
broadband wireless access, or other
telecommunications applications in the
“DAB”portion of the L-band. (i.e 1452-1492
MHz)
4

5. Why Open & Free (CRC)
Tools developed during R&D activities
CRC is publicly funded R&D lab
Does not (always) have to generate revenues
Efforts to benefit industries AND public
5

6. Why Open & Free
(food for thoughts 1)
Software tends to become free
GNU/Linux, Android, ...
Hardware tends to become generic
Functionality provided by OS, Apps, SDR, …
Leads to increased economies of scale
Open source momentum in various industries
Smart phone OS' (key for DAB?), VoIP,
IDEs (Eclipse), Web Servers (Apache), …
Open & Free tech often not best tech..
But most of the time best ”bang for the bucks”
6

7. Why Open & Free
(food for thoughts 2)
Collaborate on single core software implementation,
Compete on quality of integration, service, extensions,...
DAB suffers from closed, vertical and
proprietary business models
… see: mobile handhelds, smart phones, …
Can business be done with Open & Free?
… see: Internet, Web, ...
Open & Free Infrastructures
more business made ”because of” highways than ”by” highways
No ubiquity without open & free? (CERN does not collect royalties for WWW)
MP2 DAB royalty-free soon?
7

8. CRC mmbTools
http://mmbtools.crc.ca
8

9. Trend: Software on Generic HW

12. Architecture
12

13. CRC-DABMUX
See specsheet on mmbtools.crc.ca
Free open source code since September 2009
13

14. G.703 Interface
CRC-DABMUX
CRC ETI Player
FarSync TE1
E1 (G.703 and G.704) Universal PCI card for Linux and
Windows
http://www.farsite.com
14

15. CRC-DABMOD
Software Defined Radio DAB Modulator
USRP: Ettus research

16. Software Building Blocks

17. Ubuntu Base System

18. Ubuntu Minimized

19. Ubuntu with CRC Tools

20. mmbTools live CD

21. “One Click” Transmitter

22. Announcement !
CRC-DABMOD
Released today as
GPL Open Source Software
Download at: mmbtools.crc.ca

23. mmbTools Web Appliances

24. CRC Openmokast
http://www.openmokast.org
24

25. Colliding Business Models
?
Broadcaster MNO
FTA-TV Pay-TV

26. Openmokast Stack

27. Openmokast Architecture
Receiver control
(RDI, DCSR, ETI)
FIC decoding
Demultiplexing
Application
decoding
Presentation
Generic C/C++ code, works ”as is” on many embedded platforms !

28. Adapt Openmoko Device

29. Adapt Openmoko Device

30. Openmokast Prototype

31. Screenshots

32. Android

33. Android
Openmokast Player Openmokast Player on
on T-Mobile G1 Android Market (MAS)

34. Mobile DAB Hotspot v2.0
DAB over Wifi
 IGEPv2
 Beagleboard
 Zoom
 ...
SDR?
Multi-standard?
Simply enabled by: iPhone App, Android App,
Nintendo DS,...

35. DAB Personal LAB

36. What CRC Tools Don't Do
We don't mind telling weaknesses out loud
... because we're not selling anything!
… In fact, we hope you will point out the problems ASAP
... Or better, fix them yourself !
Overall: No warranty, no reliability figures, no redundancy
CRC-DABMUX: No dynamic reconfiguration, no EDI (local
TCP/IP ETI)
CRC-DABMOD: Only mode 2 support, no synchronization
Openmokast: No audio decoding
LiveCD: no codecs, few applications (MOT decoder from
DReaM)

37. mmbTools Community
 www.opendigitalradio.org
 Receiver manufacturers
 Pre-market field trials
 Broadcast R&D lab
 University students
Creation of a mailinglist

38. Uses for the Tools
- Receiver testing
- ETI file production
- Apps development and testing
- Events / micro – broadcasting
- Field trials
- ”Hacking” and fun for the love of DAB
- other creative uses by users
- ....

39. Royalty-Free Codecs
• In broadcasting: most standards require non-RF tech
• Must pay royalties for most CODECS
- Can't distribute free software implementations at large
• CRC mmbTools and Openmokast now include CELT
fullband audio CODEC over DAB
• New IETF workgroup formed to look at Internet RF codecs:
- Candidates codecs: CELT, Broadcom, Skype, …
- RF codecs could be in mobile platforms soon
For Internet Apps (radio?)
Broadcast radio at disadvantage?

40. Licences, Governance, Copyrights
CRC projects licenses: GPL
- If you make changes to source code and distribute products based on it
- You have to open source your modifications
Governance: Not established yet
- now: you propose modifications, we check and integrate
Copyrights: True open source approach (proposed)
- Code contributors keep their copyright
- no copyright assignment to CRC
Of course, it is always possible to dual license the first released versions
- not the intent, but possible

41. What Next ?
• Maintain mmbTools and Openmokast
• HE-AACv2 real-time software encoders (sorry, can't be free!)
• Live CD:
• Support more standards: FM/RDS, ATSC/MH, …
• Update to recent Ubuntu releases (LTS)
• Openmokast: Bcast chipsets into open phones
• Openmokast: Port to Android
• New broadcast apps
• Royalty-free codecs: audio, video (CELT, Theora)
• OpenBTS as return link
• Broadcast apps in “App Stores”
• Micro-broadcasting: events,…
• Field trial: 3G radio reception
• …?

42. FM + RDS in mobile devices
GSM
Phones
© HTC
42

43. Conclusions
Open & RF & Software and Generic HW
= democratisation
= rapid innovation cycles
= adoption
= greater QoL (quality of life)
CRC-DABMUX, CRC-DABMOD = Open Source GPL
Openmokast = Open Source GPL
Hoping for: wide adoption of DAB
Hoping for: Open Source TPEG, EPG, ...
Watching other platforms coming: FM, Internet,
ATSC, 3G, LTE, Wimax,...
43

44. Thanks !
PROJECTS
openmokast.org
mmbtools.crc.ca
www.crc.ca/mmb
http://www.youtube.com/crcmmb
http://www.slideshare.net/tag/crcmmb
BLOG
Broadcasting20.org, Twitter: @fralef
francois.lefebvre@crc.ca