IBM Consulting has joined the GSMA Open Gateway initiative, reinforcing the growing commercial ecosystem behind Camara-standardised network application programming interfaces (APIs),

Launched in 2023, the GSMA Open Gateway is designed to help developers and cloud providers enhance and deploy services more quickly via single points of access to operator networks. This is achieved via common, northbound-service APIs that expose mobile operators’ network capabilities in a consistent, interoperable and federated framework. The GSMA sees the move as representing a paradigm shift in the way the telecoms industry designs and delivers services in an increasingly API-based world.

Indeed, the GSMA and the project’s partners regard quality of service APIs as a key feature of future networks to offer users bandwidth-intensive, low-latency, real-time services. The APIs will be designed to provide federated access to global network capabilities with the intended result of simplifying service delivery and enabling faster time to market.

The GSMA Open Gateway’s channel partner programme, supported by more than 70 businesses, is regarded as an essential driver of network API adoption, acting as the interface between operators and enterprise markets to ensure that Camara API capabilities are packaged and delivered in ways that meet real business needs.

Camara is a Linux Foundation open source project that defines, develops and tests APIs. It works in close collaboration with the GSMA Operator Platform Group to align API requirements, and publish API definitions and APIs. Harmonisation of APIs is said to be achieved through fast and agile created working code with developer-friendly documentation. API definitions and reference implementations are free to use.

4G and 5G network capabilities are functions partly available already in 4G, but are said to be new and much more powerful in a 5G network. These functions are designed to be able to get information out of the network but also to configure it.

Global mobile comms trade association the GSMA says the on-demand, secure and controlled exposure of these capabilities pave the way for transforming operator networks into service enablement platforms, facilitating the application-to-network integration, which will be key to deliver enhanced and service-tailored customer experience in the 5G era.

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IBM Consulting joins GSMA Open Gateway API initiative

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