This section describes software tools that were developed at CRC under the MMB research project.

CRC-DABMUX

The CRC software multiplexer CRC-DABMUX is a central component of the experimental DAB transmission chain. All applications can be inserted through multiple input options: file, UDP/IP and TCP/IP. The signalling information is auto-generated and is sent over the fast information channel (FIC). The resulting ETI formatted bit stream can be provided via many output options as well: TCP/IP, UDP/IP, files and G.703 physical interface. The G.703 ETI interface was implemented by slightly modifying the open source low level drivers of a generic E1-T1 PCI communication device. The ETI bitstream can also be sent directly into CRC-DABRMS.

Most DAB transport mechanisms have been fully or at least partially implemented: FIDC, MPEG audio, enhanced packet mode (EPM), stream mode and DMB. The multiplexer was developed for the GNU/Linux operating system (OS) but it also runs on Microsoft Windows.

(download pdf datasheet)

CRC-DABRMS

The main function of the Receiver Manager Software (RMS) developed at the CRC is to control and provide access to PC-based DAB commercial receivers. It generally does that by interacting with the software application interface (API) provided for these receivers. In it's current state, CRC-DABRMS supports the following inputs:

CRC-DABRMS is compatible with Microsoft Windows and Linux and offers many functionalities:

Services can be stored directly to files or forwarded to IP sockets for further processing. For example, an adapter has been developed to encapsulate MPEG Layer II audio bit streams into RTP packets. These packets are then forwarded to local or remote target applications via unicast or multicast addresses.

CRC-DABRMS is based on a flexible software architecture that allows adding new application decoders dynamically through .dll or .so libraries.

CRC-DABMOD

CRC-DABMOD is a basic SDR modulator that implements the DAB specification. It is based on the USRP platform which provides D/A conversion and RF components for the transmission/reception of signals in different bands. The waveform is generated on a PC platform and transferred via a USB interface to the D/A subsystem.

CRC-DWAP

The CRC Digital Wave Player (DWAP) is a small software application that provides a direct signal insertion mechanism into the USRP.

CRC-DMBNCO

The CRC DMB encoder (NCO) is a collection of software components that support real-time and off-line encoding of DMB video and audio content. Many of these components originate from open source software projects for which some functionalities had to be adapted or extended by CRC. Other missing components were fully developped at CRC.

CRC IP File Delivery Platform

The multicast IP is a flexible and user-friendly test system for the transmission of files and file structures to wireless digital broadcast terminals. This platform was developed on top of the open source INRIA Flute/ALC library. The service announcement mechanism was developed based on the IETF SAP/SDP protocols.

The Broadcast File Server is the CRC technology to prepare and initiate the transmission of files and file structures while the Broadcast Download Manager is a user-centric Internet-like file download manager to be used on digital broadcasting terminals.

V4L2 Virtual Device

V4L2 Virtual Device is a video4linux2 driver providing one or multiple video pipes. It is used to route the output of a user space video source application to typical video "consuming" applications (players, encoders, PVRs) that normally get their content from video4linux2 devices. Through v4l2vd, applications such as mplayer, mythTV and many other can now access and render video files or real-time networked media sources. In addition to the v4l2vd driver, the v4l2vd Source application is provided with this project as an example of a raw video feed.

This project was developed based on the Video4Linux Loopback Device project by Jeroen Vreenken and Kenneth Lavrsen. It is available under the GPL licence as a Sourceforge project: http://v4l2vd.sourceforge.net/

CRC DAB Capacity Calculator

The CRC DAB Capacity Calculator is a small Windows(tm) application that helps planning the content of DAB multiplexes in terms of capacity units (CUs). It takes into account the different types of channels and protection applied to the content.

The CRC DAB Capacity Calculator is available for free and can be downloaded here. Please send your comments or suggestions to francois.lefebvre [at] crc.ca