My API Story: Transforming components

Tell us about yourself and your job

I joined ZTE in 2004, with over 20 years in telecom specializing in R&D and product management. As GM of Service and Data Intelligence, I lead large model R&D and operations in telecom. Formerly Vice Dean of ZTE Wireless R&D and Director of Network Planning, I bring a global perspective. Serving on the ZTE Network Technology editorial board, I led my team to win awards in 2023, including the 6th Blossom Cup First Prize and GTI Innovation Award, driving 5G and intelligent network advancements.

What TM Forum Open APIs are most valuable to your company?

TMF Open APIs related to network operation and maintenance, as well as service quality, are of utmost importance to us. Specifically, these include:

l TMF702_Resource Activation Management API

l TMF634_Resource Catalog Management API

l TMF639_Resource Inventory Management API

l TMF621_Trouble Ticket Management API

l TMF724_Incident Management API

l TMF642_Alarm Management API

l TMF656_Service Problem Management API

l TMF657_Service Quality Management API

l TMF640_Service Activation Management API

l TMF672_User Role Permission Management API

Most of these APIs focus on the resource management domain and serve as the key foundation of ZTE's intelligent network operation product solution.

Why did you choose to highlight those APIs?

We focus on resource management-related APIs for the following reasons:

• Foundational support: Resource management is a core function of ZTE's products, and the accuracy of its data directly affects the effectiveness of upper-layer applications such as alarms, performance analysis, and intelligent decision-making.
• Standardization and capability openness: By standardizing resource management interfaces through TMF APIs, we can open key capabilities to third-party vendors, improve system integration efficiency, and strengthen ZTE's influence in basic capabilities.
• Internal capability reuse: Unified API interfaces allow ZTE to directly reuse resource management capabilities across domains of ZTE product, avoiding repetitive development and accelerating product iteration.
• Industry ecosystem collaboration: API architectures compliant with TMF standards lay the foundation for cross-vendor and cross-system interoperability, helping to build an open and win-win telecom ecosystem.

These APIs serve as the technical foundation for ZTE to achieve "Intelligent Network Operation" and are also key links connecting internal and external ecosystems.

How do you use those APIs?

First, we identify components with similar functional and information architectures within the management domains corresponding to these APIs, transform these components to gradually comply with the corresponding component specifications, and implement these APIs through REST interfaces. Second, these APIs are utilized in our application domains such as service provisioning, fault analysis, and complaint management. In practice, we invoke the REST interfaces of these APIs through domain components on the PAAS cloud platform to complete the required functions.

How have you benefited from using those APIs?

Contributing to and using these APIs has brought multiple benefits. It encourages us to implement our components with more standardized concepts and technical methods, resulting in more versatile components that can be reused across various products and scenarios. This significantly reduces the development costs of repetitive work and shortens the integration time of system products. Moreover, it improves interoperability between different systems and promotes the widespread use of our components across different products and suppliers.

Where do you use them?

ZTE deploys TMF Open APIs globally through its AIR Net solution, with over 100 projects in various markets. By 2025, the AIR Net solution plans to complete 34 TMF Open API conformance certifications. The current key projects for promoting Open APIs include:

Bangladesh (Grameenphone/GP): Actively guiding the deployment of TMF Open APIs in ZTE’s tool system for managed services, aligned with TMF’s ODA framework to enhance interoperability.

Myanmar (OML): Upgrading existing tool systems in managed services projects to integrate TMF Open APIs and ODA architecture, ensuring compliance with industry standards.

Have you used them in conjunction with any other APIs?

Currently within ZTE, our Digital Nebula system, which follows the ODA architecture, has been implemented across all communication products. The cloud - based verification, display, and Interaction system for ZTE's internal APIs has been established. API - based interactions have been widely adopted, especially in the enterprise and government industry, and also meet the personalized requirements of NOC (Network Operations Center) and SOC (Service Operations Center) in CSP’s network operation.. This process of rapidly building new capabilities and applications through API-based Assembly-Style is expanding from ZTE's internal APIs to the OpenAPI domain. As more vendors release APIs as Open APIs following ODA, cross - vendor API calls between product components will become more common. For example, we are discussing with Grameenphone (GP) in Bangladesh how to achieve collaborative application with third-party vendor APIs in projects.

Why do you believe in TM Forum’s Open API program?

TMF has extensive experience in the telecom management domain. The Open API is derived from a comprehensive model based on consistent core frameworks such as business process, functional, and information frameworks, covering most telecom operation and maintenance activities. With a rational architecture based on business models, the Open API has a well - planned layout and mapping. Furthermore, it provides a rigorous conformance testing process, ensuring that certified APIs have excellent interoperability and are recognized by the industry. We are confident that TMF's OpenAPI will be the most common and universal open API in the communication industry.