Flex:DVB

The Flex DVB stack is a combination of hard- and software for sending, receiving and processing MPEG-2 and DVB data streams. The Flex-link adapter hardware provides the interface for connecting different DVB hardware devices with the main system board. For example, the system board might be connected to a L-band satellite demodulator or an ASI input adapter. The data stream received on the system board enters the DVB software stack. The DVB software stack is able to do PSI/SI analysis, IP decapsulation, data transformation and much more. The extensible and modular architecture of the Flex DVB stack allows to receive, transform and output data in various formats on various links.

The core of Flex:DVB is a multiplexing and encapsulation framework that includes MPEG-2 TS and DVB-S2 Baseband frame multiplexing and support for RTP, MPE, ULE and GSE. The flexible module architecture allows dozens of different configurations. Input/output modules are available for: physical and virtual network interfaces, ASI transceiver cards (gcs, Linear Systems, and DekTec), TCP/UDP network sockets, files (plain or pcap format) and Linux DVB API. Implementations for all standardized ULE/GSE extensions are available and a public API facilitates development of custom extensions.

It is possible to integrate user-defined modules for the Flex DVB stack. This can facilitate the implementation of a new IP encapsulation protocol or also an extension of such a protocol. Because the Flex DVB stack provides access to the underlying DVB bearer format, one can also perform custom optimizations on a very low level, something that is hardly possible with other DVB receivers.

The Flex:DVB stack is compatible to products from other vendors like WORK Microwave, DekTec or Linear Systems.

GDD

A C/C-plus-plus software library that allows to automatically decode a full MPEG-2 transport stream. Decoding involves reassembly and parsing of signalling information and network-layer (IP) packets. Input to the library is a sequence of either MPEG-2 TS packets or DVB-S2 base-band frames. The library supports MPE, ULE and GSE encapsulation formats. Further features include automatic stream-type recognition, PID/ISI-filters and statistic/error event counters.

The library is integrated into the Flex:DVB stack and used in gcs receivers and analyzers.

Parsec

C++ software library for parsing and analyzing MPEG-2/DVB program and service information (PSI/SI). Parsec provides a rich set of classes and methods for accessing and evaluating signalling data defined in the following standards: ISO/IEC 13818-1 (MPEG-2 Systems), ETSI EN 300 468 (DVB-SI), ETSI EN 301 392 (DVB Data Broadcasting), ETSI EN 301 790 (DVB-RCS). Parsec can be bundled with GDD, but is also available at its own.

Flex:Conf

Many gcs products use the Flex:Conf control and configuration system. Flex:Conf orchestrates system services and implements the persistent configuration of the device. All available user-interfaces access the system through Flex:Conf. Flex:Conf also provides a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) API which provides access to all system capabilities in a well-defined and clear way (see Flex:RPC).

Flex:RPC

The so-called Flex:RPC interface is based on XML-RPC technology. XML-RPC support is available for many programming languages. In object-oriented languages such as Java or C#, Flex:RPC allows to treat gcs devices like an ordinary object, and interact with it transparently over the network. Flex:RPC comes with a complete on-line help system, documenting the complete API. More extensive API documentation is available upon request in HTML or PDF form, for each gcs device equipped with this technology.

Applications

A set of independent (in the sense of not strictly relying on other gcs technologies) applications is used by gcs and integrated in its products. Most of them provide standard control and data interfaces and can therefore also easily be used on other platforms or by integrators.

The DSM-CC carousel process manages and bundles object carousels and encapsulates the data using the DSM-CC messaging format.

The DVB-SI generator creates and implements the complete MPEG-2/DVB signalling plane.

The Video playout is used to transmit/recode video and our audio files in broadcast multiplexes.