CAMARA was initiated in 2021 by a small group of telecom operators, vendors, and hyper scalers, and launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 28th, 2022, with 22 partners.
CAMARA is an open-source project within the Linux Foundation to define, develop, and test APIs.
It works closely with the GSMA Operator Platform Group and Fusion initiatives to align API requirements and publish API definitions and APIs.
The scope of the CAMARA project is limited to telecom APIs, which include APIs in the domains of telecom mobile networks, fixed line networks, telecom edge cloud, and supporting services like authentication.
There are three types of northbound APIs, including Service APIs, Service Management APIs and Operate APIs.
Service APIs and Service Management APIs fall within the scope of the CAMARA project.
Service APIs are intended for end consumers and are integrated by developers to invoke specific telecom capabilities.
Service Management APIs are intended for end consumers to manage or get data about offered Service APIs during application runtime, such as checking service availability or performance information.
CAMARA defines these Service APIs and Service Management APIs using a contribution-driven approach and in collaboration with the developer community.
The service scope of the CAMARA project includes:
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Collecting API requirements from GSMA OPG (Operator Platform Group), a GSMA group that defines the reference architecture and requirements of the platform operators use to expose their capabilities to customers via APIs, and other sources.
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Prioritizing a list of API families seen as useful for customers, including a functional description of the APIs.
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Defining Service APIs and Service Management APIs and creating test plans and tools from a business and API consumer perspective.
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Developing Service APIs and Service Management APIs including reference implementations for transformation functions.
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Creating test cases and performing verifications and tests from a developer.
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Creating developer-friendly documentation for Service APIs and Service Management APIs.
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Testing these Service APIs and Service Management APIs from a business and customer perspective in telecom networks.
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Creating deployment packages for Service APIs and Service Management APIs.
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Creating a reference architecture for Service APIs and Service Management APIs.
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Defining a standard API lifecycle, development, and test process, including tools for the project.
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