Adding Nokia’s Network as Code platform with developer portal to Orange’s Developer Portal and commercial network APIs
Orange and Nokia are expanding their partnership to advance network programmability and monetization. Using Nokia’s Network as Code platform with developer portal, developers will be able to test and exploit Orange’s 5G network capabilities to create applications for customers in Europe.
Orange is already offering developers commercial, production-grade network API capabilities via the Orange Developer Portal. The plan is that working with Nokia will expand and accelerate progress, allowing developers to tap into capabilities like dynamic bandwidth allocation, real-time location insights, predictive maintenance and event-driven triggers for security and safety responses.
Nokia’s Network as Code platform with developer portal will give application developers access to software development kits (SDKs) and network API documentation. It will also provide a ‘sandbox’ enabling developers to generate code and simulate use cases; and testing and code ‘snippets’ that can be included in new applications.
As part of the first step in their network API collaboration, Orange and Nokia will co-host a Network as Code Hackathon today and tomorrow at France’s tech start-up conference, Viva Tech.
Future developments
In future, Orange and Nokia will engage with the developer community by providing support for pre-commercial use cases while developers leverage the network API expertise and capabilities from both partners. This pilot programme will become available in stages across certain European countries, starting through the Orange 5G Labs network (see graphic above).
Nokia’s Network as Code platform uses technical standards produced through industry initiatives such as the GSMA Open Gateway initiative and the Linux Foundation CAMARA. Nokia and Orange contribute to both initiatives. Orange has already implemented Linux Foundation CAMARA’s guidelines and its first commercial-grade APIs are available in France and Spain.
Nokia has signed collaboration agreements with 12 network operators and ecosystem partners around the world to use its Network as Code platform with developer portal.
Laurent Leboucher, Group CTO, at Orange said,“We are very pleased to open another area of collaboration with Nokia that enables compelling business use cases to consume our network assets in ways that were not really feasible years ago. Today, the level of collaboration among operators, system integrators, developers, and partners, is a step change and this is positioning us to better tap the cloud-native capabilities built into Orange’s 5G network.”
Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services, at Nokia added,“This is an important step in our relationship with Orange and further validation of the steps we are taking in the API journey to help customers achieve network programmability and monetization. We look forward to our continued close cooperation with developers to create and drive new opportunities that support Orange in delivering even more value from its network assets.”