MEF announces first-movers for MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata API deployment

MEF has announced that several service providers are on track to be production-ready in Q220 for deploying MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs to automate ordering of MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet Access E-Line services.

Of these pioneers, five already have implemented LSO Sonata APIs in production environments and three expect to be ready for deployment before the end of Q220. Multiple other service providers have informed MEF that they intend to implement LSO Sonata APIs in the 2H20.

Implementation of LSO Sonata APIs enables service providers to transition from operating as independent islands to participating in a global federation of automated networks that will support dynamic inter-provider services with frictionless commerce. Combining MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs with certified MEF 3.0 CE services offers a host of potential benefits, including:

· Faster, efficient interconnection between retail and wholesale service provider partners

· Automated ordering and provisioning

· Accelerated service delivery with near-instantaneous cycle times

· Faster time to revenue

· Additional revenue from new orders due to improved customer experience

· New revenue from on-demand/dynamic services.

“Automating inter-provider services with MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs enables providers to rapidly deliver high-performance/on-demand data services that are available beyond the network footprint of any individual operator,” said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF.

“Participation in the global federation creates an opportunity to provide higher margin, highly differentiated services that leave behind commoditised, low-margin fixed-bandwidth services.”

The companies which have a presence in the Asia Pacific/Middle East regions include:

· AT&T

Commented John Nolan, VP of Global Connections and Alliance Management, AT&T: “AT&T has been active in the MEF LSO Sonata API development from the start because we believe standardisation of business application interoperability is a critical component in evolving the industry towards a cloud-like experience for telecoms services, building towards fully-automated networks that raise the bar for customer experience.

"We’re currently working with carriers in all regions and will share updates throughout 2020 as we connect our businesses using the Sonata APIs. We encourage our counterparts across the global telecoms industry to join us in driving implementation of the Sonata APIs, interconnecting in an agile way and propagating an industrywide many-to-many approach.”
 · Colt Technology Services


“Colt has been a key supporter and driver of the MEF LSO Sonata standard since its inception. We see this standard as being critical for the evolution of Colt’s On Demand offering, which allows customers to take full control of their network, by managing service quoting, activation and assurance all via an online portal or via APIs," noted Mirko Voltolini, Head of Network On Demand, Colt.

"The LSO Sonata standard allows us to extend the service beyond the Colt network boundaries onto third-party carrier networks. We are excited to see what can be done as this standard continues to evolve, and we feel proud to have shown the transformative nature of the LSO Sonata APIs in our industry-first production deployment with AT&T.”
· HGC Global Communications, formerly known as Hutchison Global Communications

Jacqueline Teo, Chief Digital Officer, HGC Global Communications said, “HGC is a firm believer in standards that drive consistent and repeatable collaboration between carriers. LSO Sonata enables HGC to access markets faster and to integrate our core platforms with other carriers to provide frictionless customer experience. Such seamless integration would enable HGC to achieve our vision of digital customer journeys, improve our productivity and further down the road, make inclusion of new business models possible.” 

· Infonas

Rafik Shafik, CTO, Infonas said, "At Infonas, our focus has been on transforming and evolving our commercial interactions; and MEF's LSO Sonata has been our go-to framework for sales and B2B workflow automation. For us, it is not only about instant online quoting, but rather evolving to a flexible and sustainable business model to efficiently and rapidly deliver (or procure) connectivity to any location around the world.”

· PCCW Global


Frederick Chui, Chief Commercial Officer, PCCW Global stated, “We at PCCW Global are very pleased to be one of the first few services providers to have production-ready MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs for serviceability, quoting and ordering of Ethernet services. These APIs are proving to be very useful when it comes to dealing with high-volume transactional elements of the telecoms business.

"LSO Sonata APIs are vital in an intercarrier, automated services environment where our customers are expecting to order and consume network services in real-time and on-demand, such as that offered by Console Connect. We foresee that a wider adoption of these standardised Sonata APIs would help the ICT community as a whole and pave the path to common information modeling and automated commercial settlements among them.” 

· Sparkle 

“Sparkle is a strong supporter of the evolution underway of the interaction process between partner carriers to accelerate time to market and improve customer experience. Having this clear objective, we are fully committed to implement Sonata APIs in production, for both seller and buyer roles, within June 2020," said Mario Di Mauro, CEO, Sparkle.

"At the same time, we are actively working to empower selected partner providers with a plug-and-play Sonata-enabling technology to expand the ecosystem with the aim to offer customers a consistent experience throughout Sparkle’s extended footprint.” 

· Telefónica International Wholesale Services

“More than 50 global and regional service providers are at various stages of evaluation, demonstration, and production readiness of LSO Sonata APIs to enable frictionless interprovider commerce,” said Nan Chen, President, MEF.

“We congratulate this outstanding group of production-ready service providers who are committed to implementing MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs to improve overall customer experience. Their collective efforts represent a major leap forward in accelerating industry transformation to dynamic, assured, and certified services across a global federation of automated networks.”

MEF is standardising LSO Sonata APIs as part of an effort to standardise multiple sets of LSO APIs enabling service automation across providers and network technology domains. LSO Sonata APIs relate to the interface reference point within the LSO Reference Architecture that supports automated business-to-business interactions between service providers. The full suite of available and planned LSO Sonata APIs deals with serviceability (address validation, site queries, product offering qualification), product inventory, quoting, ordering, trouble ticketing, contracts, and billing.


In November 2019, MEF announced the availability of the LSO Sonata software development kit (SDK) Release 4 with APIs for serviceability, product inventory, quoting, and ordering. Downloadable from the MEF public GitHub, the SDK includes API and product payload specifications as well as other artifacts and tools that enable a developer to rapidly build out the APIs within their business systems.

MEF currently is on track to release LSO Sonata SDK R5 in late June.


An industry association of 200 member companies, MEF is driving development of a global federation of dynamic, trusted, and certified services that power enterprise digital transformation. It is key to publicising MEF 3.0 work, which will enable automated delivery of standardised Carrier Ethernet, optical transport, IP, SD-WAN, SD-WAN security, and other Layer 4-7 services across multiple provider networks.

MEF 3.0 services are designed to provide an on-demand, cloud-centric experience with user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities. MEF 3.0 services are delivered over automated, virtualised, and interconnected networks powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV. MEF produces service standards, LSO frameworks, LSO APIs, MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Showcases, and certification programmes for services, technologies, and professionals.
Explore:

Read white papers on LSO Sonata APIs for the orchestration of MEF-certified services:

· The Case for Standardized and Automated Inter-Provider Business Interface

· Business and Operational Aspects of Implementing LSO Sonata

· MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet Certification Business Case for Service Providers

· Orchestrated MEF 3.0 Optical Transport Services

Companies interested in implementing LSO Sonata APIs and learning about deliverables in the upcoming SDK can join the SDK Community on GitHub by contacting community_manager@mef.net.