MEF releases SDKs with APIs to simplify Ethernet services inside and out

Image credit: asharkyu / Shutterstock.com

MEF has released two new software development kits for its LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration) framework that sport open APIs for orchestrating Ethernet connectivity services across multiple service providers and network technology domains within a service provider’s network.

The LSO Sonata SDK – which is part of the MEF’s overarching effort to standardize open LSO Sonata APIs under its LSO Reference Architecture & Framework in partnership with TM Forum – features three core APIs to enable orchestration of MEF-defined services across different service provider networks. Those APIs are extensions of four TM Forum open APIs covering address validation, serviceability, and ordering.

The LSO Sonata Address Validation API extends the TM Forum Address API and Site APIs. The LSO Sonata Serviceability API extends the TM Forum Product Ordering Qualification API. And the LSO Ordering API extends the TM Forum Product Offering API.

The APIs in the SDK are the first of a suite of Sonata APIs the MEF is developing to be defined in MEF interface profile specifications (IPSs). Other Sonata APIs in the works focus on quoting, billing, assurance, testing, and change management.

The basic objective of the initial Sonata SDK release is to simplify and automate the processes that service providers have to go through to order wholesale Ethernet from other operators so they can provide end-to-end services to customers when one or more of those ends are on someone else’s network. That process tends to take a long time because it typically has to be done manually. Either that, or service providers have to write their own customized API for each wholesale player they do business with.

“The LSO Sonata SDK enables MEF members to experiment with open APIs for automating the service lifecycle and eventually commercializing products that align with the MEF IPSs that will be published in the future,” said MEF CTO Pascal Menezes in a statement. “Our objective is to accelerate adoption of the IPSs when they are available. Based on pre-standard versions of the IPSs, MEF SDKs enable developers to automate the generation of standardized open APIs.”

Meanwhile, the MEF also launched the LSO Presto SDK, which covers service orchestration over multiple network technology domains – namely, the various (and usually siloed) OSS and network management systems supporting Layer 2, Layer-3 and optical infrastructure.

Presto is part of the MEF’s work to create standardized LSO APIs for an IPS dealing with network resource provisioning (NRP), performance monitoring, and other functions over various technology domains such as packet WAN, optical transport, SD-WAN and 5G. MEF, who is leveraging the ONF’s TAPI model for network resource activation and topology, says it expects to publish the LSO Presto NRP IPS in the near future.

The first release of the LSO Presto SDK includes the LSO Presto NRP API for Packet WAN implementations. That API is already supported within an OpenDaylight SDN controller plug-in contributed into the ODL UNI Manager project. The SDK includes a reference implementation with the ODL SDN controller that demonstrates how a northbound application can provision an end-to-end network connectivity service between two endpoints in both a technology-agnostic and vendor-agnostic manner.

In the future, the MEF says, LSO Presto APIs will evolve to support more technology domains, business requirements, and use cases.

“As standardized open LSO APIs are developed, demonstrated, and implemented, we will be able to start certifying orchestrated services and their enabling technologies like we certify standardized CE 2.0 services and equipment today,” said MEF president Nan Chen.

The LSO APIs included in these new SDKs are now available for experimental use by MEF members and associated MEF programs.

Be the first to comment

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.