The number of providers who are adopting MEF LSO APIs to standardize and automate negotiation of services with customer and suppliers has increased significantly. The APIs currently cover serviceability, quoting and ordering of services and are already being used in production with many providers. AT&T was one of the first providers to adopt LSO APIs with more than a dozen suppliers already in production, increasing to around twenty suppliers by the end of this year. In the past each supplier had to work directly from the standards specification documents and API definitions to develop their implementation. This often led to differences in interpretations and basic errors resulting in prolonged and problematic interoperability testing. As the number of suppliers who implement the LSO APIs increases the need for an efficient, scalable means to onboard and test interoperability is apparent.
To address these challenges, Amartus worked in close cooperation with AT&T and other MEF Members to define the MEF LSO API Onboarding and Interoperability Testing Service (‘MEF OIT Service’). The outcome of that work led to Amartus’ appointment as the MEF Authorized Test and Certification partner for the service and subsequent launch of the service in Oct ‘21. The MEF OIT Service implements configurable buyer and seller software emulators ‘Digital Siblings’ that are compliant with the LSO Sonata API standards. These emulators were developed by Amartus using its nBrace™ Inter-provider Automation software, they offer a common interpretation of the standards that was independently verified by MEF. The aim is for all providers to test their implementations against these emulators to achieve a high degree of compliance and compatability with partner implementations prior to engaging in direct interoperability testing. This leads to reduced implementation and partner interoperability test cycle times and the ability to onboard and test with multiple partners in parallel.
Amartus is working closely with AT&T and its suppliers to fine-tune the service so that the time and effort for onboarding and interoperability testing is minimised.
More information on the MEF OIT Service can be found here: https://amartus.com/mef-oit/
Amartus is a leading provider of expertise and solutions in network and cloud automation and orchestration software. Founded in 2003, the company is recognized as an industry innovator for its active pursuit and contribution to cutting-edge technologies, open architectures, and industry standards developments (MEF, TM Forum and ETSI). In recent years the company played a lead role in development of MEF LSO inter-provider standards for negotiating services with customers and suppliers. It consolidated that experience to develop nBrace™ a software solution designed to fast-track providers implemenation of the standard. Additionally in Oct ’21 the company was appointed by MEF as its authorized partner to provide the MEF OIT Service.
The company has a proven track record working with a global customer and partner base of service providers, solution providers, and enterprises to accelerate their digital and network transformation.
For more information, visit www.amartus.com.