The Optical Internetworking Forum’s Transport Application Programming Interface (T-API) 2.0 is market ready, following a six week, multi-vendor interoperability demonstration. The results of the interoperability test are reported in a new whitepaper published by the OIF.
The multi-vendor demo led by four network operator labs included lab-deployed and cloud-deployed systems testing new dynamic behavior use cases and deployment scenarios. The demo also incorporated service provisioning scenarios at the LSO Presto reference point in the MEF LSO architecture, using the MEF NRP Interface Profile Specification (MEF 60), which defines extensions to T-API in support of Carrier Ethernet services.
Participating network operators were CenturyLink, China Telecom, SK Telecom and Telefónica and vendors included ADVA, Coriant, Infinera, NEC/Netcracker, Nokia and SM Optics. Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) was a participating academic institution and TELUS Communications participated as a consulting network operator.
Key findings detailed in the whitepaper:
- Open Networking Foundation (ONF) T-API 2.0 specifications have addressed the main issues identified in the OIF’s 2016 testing and provide a basis for real-time orchestration of on-demand connectivity setup, control and monitoring across diverse multi-layer, multi-vendor, multi-domain carrier networks
- Additional scaling and performance enhancements will need to be addressed as T-API is deployed in real networks, such as refinements to the model, greater detail in error codes to improve debugging properties, and potential implementation options such as a separate server for notifications of network events
- The API allows for some variability in the use of topology abstraction depending on business requirements and technology; documentation of supplementary examples for topology abstraction will help application and orchestration software developers.
http://www.oiforum.com/documents/oif-2018-sdn-t-api-interop-demo-white-paper/
“Standardized and open SDN APIs reduce complexity in intra and inter-domain operations, allowing us to provide more diverse services to our customers in less time,” said Park Jin-hyo, EVP of ICT R&D Center at SK Telecom. “After successfully completing the test trial, SK Telecom will keep engaging in 5G transport network and service development by opening APIs and transforming the current infrastructure into Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) Platform.”
Layer 1 Transport API interoperability demo — MEF, ONF, and OIF
The recently concluded MEF-ONF-OIF interoperability demo that focused on the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Transport Application Programming Interface (T-API).
NEC’s Karthik Sethuraman and Centurylink’s Jack Pugaczewski provide an overview of the demo. A proof-of-concept (PoC) on this topic will be presented at #MEF18.
See video: https://youtu.be/kahW_dxoBSk
