The LSO Sonata APIs have been developed with the industry to enable automation of a market that could be worth an estimated $250 billion on a global basis.
The release means industry players and MEF partners can implement APIs for inter-provider orchestration of current and emerging MEF 3.0 services, such as carrier Ethernet, IP. Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), optical transport, security, along with other virtualised services.
LSO Sonata API is part of MEF’s drive to standardise multiple sets of LSO APIs to enable service automation across multiple carriers using multiple network technology types. The APIs relate to the interface reference point supporting business-to-business interactions between service providers.
MEF said the full suite of APIs will deal with serviceability, product inventory, quoting, ordering, trouble ticketing contracts and billing. It comes a year after MEF first announced its plans to help the carrier market adopt more flexible networking as part of MEF 3.0, revealed at MEF17.
“The LSO Sonata Developer Release celebrated this week at MEF18 involves technical specifications and SDKs with the progression towards standardisation related to serviceability, product inventory, quoting and ordering APIs,” explained MEF president Nan Chen. “we are delighted to advance the LSO Sonata API standardisation with an eye toward production deployments for the inter-provider orchestration of MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet services starting in early 2019.”
A number of companies who have been involved in the development of LSO Sonata have also launched proof of concept demonstrations throughout the past year, some of which will be showcased at MEF18. Overall, more than 40 service and technology companies have contributed to the MEF LSO Sonata standardisation and certification effort.
MEF said it will alsso launch a MEF 3.0 certification program for service providers and solution providers, which will be expanded on a pilot basis in the first quarter of 2019. This will include the cloud-based testing of LSO APIs.
Roman Pacewicz, chief product officer at AT&T Business, said: “This is a significant industry milestone. We’re proud of our leadership role working with MEF and other technology leaders to increase automation and reduce friction. SDN and NFV continue to revolutionise how we create and manage networks and services.”
