Q&A

Technology domain is extended to cover IMS (IP Multimedia System) and MANO (Management and Orchestration) interface.

Initial MoU was for 3 years and expired in May 2016. During these years we have seen increasing interest in OSSii ecosystem that is now visible in number of OSSii contracts between NEPs and ISVs. More importantly we see concrete operator benefits emerging from the OSS interoperability initiative. Initiating parties wanted to ensure OSSii continuity through renewing for another 3 years and at the same time expanding the scope to IMS and MANO.

The initiative is open for everybody. Independent software vendors can decide, whether they want to get offered a licensing by an OSSii party. See Contacts for more information about who to contact. Which interfaces can be licensed is defined in the bi-lateral agreements between the initiating parties.

Every company can become part of it by signing bi-lateral agreements with other companies. The conditions and interfaces to be licensed are the same for all vendors who are bringing in their own OSSii interfaces. If an independent software vendor without own OSSii interfaces want to get the benefits, the interfaces license will be offered on fair, reasonable and non discriminating basis. The terms for licensing need to be agreed with every vendor separately.

In MoU basic intent and principles of the initiative are agreed;  in the bi-lateral agreement the initiative and the scope of services and interfaces are defined in more detail.

By signing OSS interoperability agreement, additional benefits are:

• Operators do not need to do mediation between the vendors for sharing interface documentation
• Pre-tested integrations are available fast for each EMS release
• SW delivered pre-integrated and tested for multi-vendor environment
• Integration issues solved prior to SW deployment

Each Party owns the Intellectually Property Right (IPR) of their proprietary OSS Interface. Any development, manufacturing and selling worldwide, to such applicable interfaces relevant functionality require a license.

OSSii offers a possibility for above mentioned licensing between independent software vendors and Network Element Provider. With OSSii Operators do not need to mediate between Network Element providers and ISVs. E.g. documentation and change management related information transfer does not require actions by operators, and testing can be done against NEPs lab equipment.

ISVs get

-          full life cycle management of the Interfaces ie. updates on version changes and release plans, full documentation, access testing services

-          license to use vendors’  Element Management Systems (EMS) North Bound Interfaces for system integration. It also provides the rights to develop, manufacture and sell the integrations as part of their OSS system.

-          possibility to build off-the-shelf products utilizing pre-built integrations

-          direct channel to vendor’s documentation (no needs for project specific NDAs)

OSSii Overview material can be viewed here.

The interfaces covered are Configuration Management (CM), Fault Management (FM), Performance Management (PM), Event/traces, and MANO (VNFM-NFVO). Each initiating vendor is bringing their own proprietary NBI into scope of OSSii. The same interfaces will be basis for potential bi-lateral agreements with ISVs or other vendors.

OSSii Overview material can be viewed here.