Operator Platform Group – Southbound Interface Network Resources APIs

This new specification defines the APIs that an Operator Platform would use for its interaction with the core network’s capabilities on its Southbound Interface to the Network Resources. This would enable the Operator Platform to expose Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) capabilities, but is also needed to support edge compute scenarios where mobility of the end user is relevant, i.e. cases where the end user’s application session would have to be migrated to a different application server to avoid a too high latency.

The APIs covered for the Southbound Interface to the network resources are mostly exposed by 3GPP’s NEF and SCEF functions. Therefore this specification defines a baseline for the APIs that those functions are expected to support to enable the Operator Platform use cases.

The specification currently bases on the requirements in the first version of the Operator Platform architecture and requirements, i.e. GSMA PRD OPG.02 v1.0, with the intention being to bring alignment with the current version 3.0 in the next update.