Consult Red contributes to prpl Lifecycle Management (LCM)

The contribution provides a secure, flexible way for operators to dynamically deploy and manage services on their router stack based on open industry standards, an enabling technology for Smart Routers

Consult Red, a leading technology consultancy for clients wanting to design and deploy connected devices and systems, has announced its contribution to prpl Lifecycle Management (LCM). These contributions leverage Consult Red’s 4+ years of experience in containerization for the open-source software platforms used to deliver broadband and video services.

Read the prpl Foundation press release: prpl Foundation Enables Open-Source App Store Concept for Residential CPE based on RDK-B and prplOS

Broadband operators expect to be able to tailor their solutions according to deployment and subscriber needs. LCM, developed by the prpl Foundation, enables operators to remotely deploy and manage the life cycle of individual containerized applications and services on a router stack, while also reducing the need for the monolithic system image updates that are required on equivalent devices today.

For example, consider a device user interface that can be managed as a modular software component with localized or customized versions deployed and initialized via LCM. These deployed devices could then further evolve to add a UI for a Matter gateway, once that service is ready and without the need to deploy a new system image.

Because the use of LCM allows for these changes to be rolled out in the field without the need to build and roll out a new device system image, the overall development effort and time to market for adding new features are considerably reduced.

“Our experience of containerization in this field is extensive and we are pleased to be able to make a significant contribution to the development of prplOS in readiness for field deployment”, said Consult Red CTO Rahul Mehra. “The need and demand for LCM directly correlate with our previous experience of bringing similar functionality to RDK for both video and broadband applications. The LCM solution that Consult Red helped develop for prpl, including reference integration for RDK-B, OCI container runtime (crun) and supporting documentation, has been made available as open-source to the prpl Foundation and its members. We will continue work in this area to extend the feature set of prpl LCM, in support of varied deployment approaches”.

The Consult Red development and contributions to prpl LCM include:

• Integration of the industry-standard crun OCI container runtime and enabling the use of OCI bundles within the prpl LCM stack, providing greater alignment with the Downloadable Application Container (DAC) approach. This creates a flexible toolkit supporting many deployment strategies across both prpl OS and RDK-B
• Build system and runtime integration of prpl LCM for RDK-B
• Extension of USP (TR-369) agent to enable remote management of LCM using the TR-181 SoftwareModules data model

prplOS (formerly prplWRT) enables carrier-grade features to complement OpenWrt. prplOS is developed by the prpl Foundation in addition to prpl Ware, (cross-platform) projects including prpl LCM and prpl MESH. The development and contributions to prpl LCM by Consult Red enable operators to get to market quicker with a platform for agility and growth. Due to the adoption of common standards, and Consult Red’s contribution, it is now possible to deploy prpl LCM to other open stacks, such as RDK-B, per the needs of operators and partner OEMs.

“We are delighted with the contribution and ongoing engagement from Consult Red to LCM for prplOS. The development of Lifecycle Management is a key enabler in helping operators and their partners to develop smart, immersive and engaging products quickly and with agility with prplOS”, said prpl Foundation President, Dr Leonard Dauphinee. “As a member of the prpl Foundation, we look forward to further contributions from Consult Red to the prplOS reference platform”.

prpl LCM is available to download and test today, for further information please click here.

In its work with leading media and connectivity brands, Consult Red contributes to open-source software platforms, leads key technology initiatives and helps operators develop and launch innovative products and services. It positions the Smart Router as a flexible and future-proof device at the heart of the smart home.