ULE Networking for Windows XP

Description

We've developed a ULE (RFC 4326) decapsulator which runs on Windows XP SP2 or Windows MCE (Media Center Edition). It's called ulenet for Windows, or just ulenet.

ulenet is the Unidirectional Lightweight Encapsulation Networking Tool. It is a DVB networking tool which works with the Microsoft Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA). ulenet can tune DVB receiver cards and receive IP traffic which is transmitted over a DVB stream. Usually, IP data is transmitted over DVB streams using some sort of encapsulation. One such encapsulation method is called Unidirectional Lightweight Encapsulation (ULE) and is standardized in RFC 4326. The original DVB method of encapsulation is called Multi-Protocol Encapsulation (MPE). ulenet supports both encapsulation methods.

What ulenet does

On setup, it installs a virtual network adapter which is used to deliver the decapsulated packets. On startup, it reads a configuration file (where tuning, IP streams, etc. are specified), tunes the DVB card (if enabled), and creates decapsulation chains for the specified IP streams. You can define as many IP streams as you like. You can also setup IP streams using MPE encapsulation. All data which is received on the streams is delivered to the virtual network adapter.

ulenet works with DVB-C/S/T and requires a DVB receiver card with BDA (Broadcast Driver Architecture) drivers.

Features

Works with all DVB receiver cards (DVB-S/C/T) that provide BDA drivers, i.e. which are Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) compatible.
ulenet provides support for tuning DVB-S/C/T cards
ulenet can be easily configured via XML-based files
It is also able to handle data that is transmitted using Multi-protocol Encapsulation (MPE), by using the MPE decapsulation filter shipped with Windows.
One running instance of ulenet can receive more than one MPEG Transport Stream (TS), maybe using different encapsulations
The MAC address of the DVB adapter can be set on the the virtual network adapter. This information can then be used by ulenet to do software-based filtering on packets that contain that address as the destination (if these addresses are transmitted). Packets that are not intended for the host thus do not bother the network stack.
ulenet can be run in the background as a Windows Service

Hardware

Hardware which is known to work

TechnoTrend Budget Cards (DVB-S, DVB-T)
Terratec Cinergy XS USB (DVB-T)
Satelco EasyWatch MobilSet PCMCIA (DVB-T)

DVB Receiver Cards with BDA Support

TechnoTrend
- TT-budget / Nova
- TT TV-Stick/TT-connect S-2400 (USB2.0)
- TT-budget T-3000
TwinHan
- Ter (D+A) VP-3054
- DVB-S PCI VP-1020,VP-1022,VP-1025,VP-1030,VP-1032
- DVB-C PCI VP-2021,VP-2031
- DVB-T VP-3020,VP-3021,VP-3040
- Mantis/Hopper PCI VP-1034,VP-2033,VP-3030
- MagicBox Pro USB VP-704A
- MagicBox II USB VP-7045,VP-7046
- StarBox USB VP-7021
- USB Stick USB VP-7049A
TerraTec
- Cinergy Hybrid T USB XS
- Cinergy 1200 DVB-S/C/T
- Cinergy 1400 DVB-T (XE)
- Cinergy 2400i DT (Hybrid DVB-T, PCIExpress)
KNCOne
- TV Station DVB-S/C/T
- TV Station DVB-S/C/T Plus
AVerMedia
- AVerTV DVB-T 777
Technisat
- AirStar TeleStick T1 (DVB-T)

Download

ulenet ver 0.1.3 (Changelog) - Installation Help

Requirements

Windows XP or Windows MCE with DirectX (at least 9.0)
BDA-compatible DVB Receiver

Older Versions

ulenet ver 0.1.2

Credits

ulenet uses the tap-win32 virtual network adapter for Windows, which is part of the OpenVPN project.

Maintainer

Christian Prähauser