ETSI releases first version of open-source operator platform to enable telco cloud network federation

Sophia Antipolis, France: ETSI is pleased to announce the first release of the ETSI Software Development Group OpenOP (Open Operator Platform). 

ETSI SDG OpenOP was established to develop an open-source Operator Platform for the Telco Cloud, enabling operator network and testbed federation alongside capability exposure.

OpenOP provides a collaborative platform for network service providers and application developers to experiment with 5G-Advanced and future 6G technologies. OpenOP Release 1 delivers the first fully integrated version of an open-source Operator Platform. It provides a framework that enables telecom network capabilities to be consumed by vertical application providers and developers through developer-friendly CAMARA APIs.

The group follows GSMA Operator Platform Group specifications for orchestration and federation of edge cloud resources for application deployment across Telco Clouds.

OPENOP RELEASE 1 MAIN COMPONENTS INCLUDE:

• The Open Exposure Gateway (OEG) to expose telecom network capabilities through CAMARA APIs.
• The Service Resource Manager (SRM), responsible for application lifecycle management, orchestration of deployments across edge cloud zones. It includes transformation functions for the integration with underlying network exposure mechanisms such as NEF.
• The Federation Manager (FM) to enable industry standards-based federation and resource discovery across distributed edge domains and multiple operator environments.
• The Transformation Functions Software Development Kit (TF-SDK) to provide the tools and runtime framework required to implement and deploy transformation functions that adapt telecom network capabilities and infrastructure resources (e.g. Kubernetes) to CAMARA API exposure.
• The OpenOP Portal to enable vertical application providers and developers to discover and experiment with available CAMARA APIs through a live catalogue and integrated UI.
• The AI Integration (AI²) exposing a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and AI Agent that enables intent-based interaction using Large Language Models (LLMs), translating natural language prompts into CAMARA API operations and the corresponding southbound primitives.

Validated through end-to-end integration scenarios across all components, this release aims to deliver a transparent and reproducible baseline for the community. A key achievement is the integration of OpenOP with an open-source 3GPP Network Exposure Function (open-exposure NEF from EURECOM) for the CAMARA Location and Quality on Demand (QoD) APIs.

OpenOP Release 1 represents an early milestone for the platform and is primarily intended for experimentation, integration testing, and community feedback. While the core architecture and components are now available, the platform will continue to evolve and be hardened as new capabilities are added and refined by the community.

COMMUNITY & ECOSYSTEM GROWTH

Since its kick-off only a few months ago, ETSI SDG OpenOP has seen its community grow at a remarkable pace, drawing strong interest from industry, academia, and research. The group now counts 24 members and participants including BT, EURECOM, FOGUS, Fraunhofer, FORTH, FSCOM, i2CAT, ICCS, Industrial System Institute, Iquadrat Informatica, InnoCube, Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Intracom Telecom, Local AI, MBP Network Technology, MEO, Motorola, NCSRD, NextWorks, Orange Romania, OTE, Realworld System, University of Bristol, and X Flow Software Technology.

In addition, the OpenOP Research Ecosystem has shown a significant expansion too, with eight EU-funded projects contributing and providing valuable feedback to the SDG, including SUNRISE-6G, FLECON-6G, 6G-DALI, 6G-INTENSE, 6G-BRICKS, ADROIT6G, ENVELOPE and COALESCE-6G.