Home Page ContentPress Releases prpl Foundation Enables Open-Source App Store Concept for Residential CPE based on RDK-B and prplOS

prpl Foundation Enables Open-Source App Store Concept for Residential CPE based on RDK-B and prplOS

by Anthony Weaver

Service providers have finally been given the open-source tools to dynamically deploy and remotely manage downloaded applications and services for the first time on both prplOS and Reference Design Kit – Broadband (RDK-B), as a result of the prpl Foundation’s Life-Cycle Management (LCM) project.

Traditionally, service providers have been limited to deploying static monolithic firmware images, which are very difficult to upgrade in the field. Through prpl LCM, service providers are now able to quickly develop, deploy and remotely manage new apps and services while ensuring a good, stable customer experience. LCM enables service providers to remotely deploy and manage the life-cycle of individual applications and services. By decoupling apps from the rest of the stack, each app can run in isolation with individually tailored constraints to ensure the stability of core triple-play (TV, voice, and internet) services.

Developed as part of the prpl Foundation’s LCM project, the platform-independent software provides open-source portability and is equally suitable for both the RDK-B and prplOS communities. As a result, service providers are now free to leverage open industry standards to remotely upgrade their existing CPE with innovative, next generation applications and services, in a similar fashion to the established ‘App Store’ concept. These downloadable applications and services can be made portable between RDK-B and prplOS by using prpl’s sister project currently in development, known as the High-Level Application Programming Interface (API).

‘Prpl LCM is a game changer yet remains firmly based on open industry standards from the Broadband Forum’, said prpl Foundation President Dr. Leonard Dauphinee. ‘The software is publicly available with a highly permissive open-source license, enabling service providers to effectively deploy CPE with capability for next-gen innovative Apps & Services to be downloaded and remotely managed, even on their previously deployed CPE.’


Prpl LCM is the only platform-independent open-source software that implements the latest open industry standards such as Broadband Forum TR-157, TR-181 and TR-369 USP, as well as the Open Container Initiative (OCI). Compliance with these standards makes it easy to integrate LCM with other protocols such as WebPA and CWMP.

‘Vodafone looks to provide exciting new services for use in the home which are built on industry standards and initiatives’, said Vodafone Head of Home Technologies and Products, Oscar Gallego. “The prpl Foundation’s LCM plays a key role in unlocking new features and capabilities for next generation Home Gateways within an RDK-B framework. Vodafone is committed to continue contributing to the wider industry efforts to port prpl LCM to RDK-B.”

Such cloud-based management capabilities were previously a novel concept to both the RDK-B and prplOS communities. Prpl LCM was jointly developed by prpl’s active open-source community, combining resources from service providers, original equipment manufacturers, system integrators and chip vendors.

Supporting industry quotes

‘At CommScope, we are committed to a vision of driving new Home Services to the Broadband Home Edge. Working with the prpl Foundation and RDK community, we are delivering new orchestrated applications and services to the digital home’, said Engineering Fellow, Office of the CTO at CommScope Home Networks, Ian Wheelock. ‘We are excited to be one of the first to embrace and demonstrate prpl’s LCM technology via our HomeAssure platform, which supports TR-369/USP and has been extended to support service delivery and orchestration of new services such as security and Wi-Fi management to broadband gateways running either prplOS or RDK-B’.

‘Consult Red is an independent technology consultancy and contributor to multiple open software stacks, including prplOS and RDK-B for broadband applications’, said Consult Red CTO Rahul Mehra. ‘We are very happy to share our extensive expertise in application containerisation to make a significant contribution to the development and release of LCM for prplOS and RDK-B, and we look forward to seeing this exciting new modular functionality being utilised by adoptees regardless of the stack they choose. The LCM solution that Consult Red helped develop for prpl, which included reference integration for RDK-B, OCI container runtime and supporting documentation, has now been made available as open-source to the prpl Foundation and its members.’

“SoftAtHome has been a long-time contributor to the prpl LCM working group. This is fully aligned with the operators’ strategy to transform the Home Gateway into the Home Service Platform. SoftAtHome has demonstrated its commitment by contributing its LCM software to the prpl Foundation as the basis for the prpl carrier-grade LCM agent,” said David Viret-Lange, CEO of SoftAtHome. “SoftAtHome offers a complete E2E solution that is compatible with the prpl LCM agent and provides a state-of-the-art solution for operators to build and manage their applications. Our product provides an integrated workflow from creation to deployment”.

‘The prpl LCM concept is part of GlobalLogic vision for the next-generation CPE architecture’, said Head of Broadband at GlobalLogic, Eli Schwarzfuchs. “As a Software services provider for the Broadband industry we were always committed to help our partners to achieve it. We are proud of the contribution we made to this project as part of our membership and cooperation with prpl, to allow prpl LCM to run seamlessly on both platforms: RDK-B and prplOS’.

About the prpl Foundation

The prpl Foundation is a collaborative open-source community dedicated to open APIs and open industry standards, focusing on carrier-grade software for broadband customer premise equipment as specified by operator members. The prpl Foundation brings together service providers, original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, chip vendors and application developers to harmonize home network architecture, then commonizes a reference implementation of standardized open-source infrastructure built atop open APIs and open industry standards. prpl enables a service delivery ecosystem including innovative third-party applications that can be quickly and easily deployed across different CPE platforms.

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