Open source project to address industry API interoperability leveragingGSMA OPGrequirements and Linux Foundation’s Developer Ecosystem

SAN FRANCISCO and BARCELONA, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Mobile World Congress 2022 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, and the GSMA, a global organization unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change, today announced a new, open source project: “CAMARA – The Telco Global API Alliance”. The global partnership will address challenges in porting and reproducing API services across heterogenous operator and cloud architectures.

CAMARA will help customer and developer ecosystems by developing an open, global, and accessible API solution with access to operator capabilities, in whatever networks customers are in, allowing applications to run consistently between telco networks and different countries. In addition, CAMARA offers new opportunities for collaboration between network and cloud companies (including telcos, ISVs, device manufacturers, etc.) to address challenges of porting and reproducing API services across heterogeneous operator architectures. This prevents fragmentation of telco and cloud developers and enables faster, more versatile advancement of global portability and broad industry adoption of new features and capabilities.  

A close collaboration has been set up between the CAMARA project and the GSMA’s Operator Platform initiative that is defining a federated platform solution for exposing operator network capabilities to external applications. This collaboration will ensure that developers relying on the CAMARA project’s API solution and abstraction will facilitate users across operator networks.

“We are thrilled to enter into this next chapter of collaboration with the GSMA,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “By harnessing existing open source communities within CNCF, LF Networking, LF Edge and aligning to GSMA’s OPG industry requirements, we are poised to address current challenges in API accessibility.”

“The Operator Platform initiative welcomes new members to join more than 40 leading operators, and 35 ecosystem partners, already working together on requirements and APIs. This type of collaboration with CAMARA is essential in accelerating scale to meet today’s integration demands,” said Henry Calvert, head of Networks, GSMA. “We are very pleased to be working with Linux Foundation, and our membership, on developing reliability and resilience in APIs, and simplifying challenges for our developer communities.”

Learn more about CAMARA during MWC Barcelona in keynote session of: https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/agenda/session/cloud-edge-a-new-approach-to-innovation

More details about “CAMARA – The Telco Global API Alliance”, are also available via GitHub: https://github.com/camaraproject.

CAMARA is supported by leading industry organizations, including: AT&T, Capgemini, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, GSMA, Google Cloud, IBM, Intel, Kandy, KDDI, Microsoft, MobiledgeX, Nokia, Orange, NGMN, Scenera, T-Mobile US, TIM, Telefonica, TELUS, the Linux Foundation and Vodafone.

More details about the GSMA’s Operator Platform initiative (and its closely related Telco Edge Cloud activity), are also at https://www.gsma.com/operatorplatform.

About GSMA 
The GSMA is a global organization unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change. Our vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive. Representing mobile operators and organizations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA delivers for its members across three broad pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry Services and Solutions, and Outreach. This activity includes advancing policy, tackling today’s biggest societal challenges, underpinning the technology and interoperability that make mobile work, and providing the world’s largest platform to convene the mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events. We invite you to find out more at gsma.com.

About the Linux Foundation 
Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 2,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit linuxfoundation.org

Media Contacts 
Jill Lovato 
The Linux Foundation
jlovato@linuxfoundation.org

Nick Miles 
GSMA 
nmiles@gsma.com

SOURCE The Linux Foundation

NICE Alliance provides the total solutions to bring advanced value to the Ecosystem. (Graphic: Business Wire)

The Industry Leading Network of Intelligent Camera Ecosystem (NICE) Alliance, formed by leading manufacturers and brands Foxconn, Nikon, Scenera, Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Wistron, will begin providing a collection of total solutions offerings to bring advanced value to its NICE services in next-generation smart cameras and IoT devices through Video/IoT data and AI technology.

Overview of NICE Total Solutions:

NICE PaaS: Cloud Platform as a Service to identify and realize NICE functionalities
NICE Demo Kit: Reference camera which runs on NICE ecosystem
NICE SDK: Software Development Kit for NICE compliant devices and applications
NICE LA/AS: License Authority/Account Service system to manage security and privacy of IoT devices and related data
NICE ATC: Authorized Test Center

Simultaneously and in partnership with Microsoft, NICE will also release its V1.1 Specification (www.nicealliance.org/specs), enhancing total AI-based security and surveillance services.

“We are thrilled to announce new adopters with the release of NICE total solutions. We believe that the combination of Sony’s sensor technology and the NICE Ecosystem will allow those who join as NICE members to provide innovative services more easily and efficiently to the world.” said Eita Yanagisawa, Senior General Manager of Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation and Executive Officer of NICE Licensing LLC.

NICE PaaS adopters are increasing:

In August 2021, S&I Corp., a total building solution provider and space management expert for LG Group with unrivaled level of technology and business expertise, has released “atxpert (‘at’+’expert’) AI Viewer^TM,” a new AI building security management system based on Microsoft Azure. TnM Tech provided NICE Compliant Ghost-I AI edge computing bridge managed by Scenera’s NICE PaaS.

TMF Earth Co. Ltd and Welsoc Inc. joined NICE Alliance as adopters.

“I believe Privacy and Data security capabilities in NICE PaaS is one of the best in the world. TMF Earth will expand our H.265 AI camera systems using NICE all over the world” said Hiroshi Saito, President of TMF Earth Co. Ltd.

“In 5 years, we are planning to install Wi-Fi networks & surveillance cameras in more than 300 cities and towns in Japan. NICE PaaS is the best solution for Base-stations management and Video-data Security.” said Hiroshi Numamoto, President of Welsoc. Inc.

“Scenera’s objective is to offer a managed PaaS for customers with IoT’s with streaming video data connected to the cloud via 5G network. Among many challenges in such system, Scenera focuses on orchestrating distributed AI between the edge and the cloud while maintaining customer’s data privacy. The key features of Scenera NICE PaaS use the tools and methodologies developed from the above-mentioned projects. Scenera’s managed PaaS relies on Azure infrastructure and help its customers to maximize the edge AI computing capabilities.” said David Lee, CEO of Scenera inc.

Acceleration of Time-to-Market and Quality Improvement:

Utilizing the solutions allows NICE members to expedite the time-to-market and improve the product quality.

“Privacy and security are our major concern, only NICE certified devices are granted the access to NICE LA/AS. A concept device (NICE POC, a NICE certified device) has been developed to demonstrate how the security is managed within NICE Ecosystem. A unique key is implanted to the device which allows it to connect to NICE LA/AS. Once the device is granted the access, the video and audio will transfer the data in the format specified by NICE Specification, SceneMark and SceneData. With this device, the users can fully explore NICE ecosystem.” said Vincent Chiang, VP of Foxconn which provides NICE Demo Kit.

“As a contributor and an Authorized Test Center of NICE, Allion Labs (Allion) will offer comprehensive smart camera testing and help build a stronger NICE ecosystem. In addition to NICE programs, Allion is also accredited to certify over 30 industry standard logos, including USB, HDMI, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, to satisfy diverse needs of manufacturers in the electronics industry. Allion believes that our extended test capabilities and debugging consulting service can become a solid support for the technical development of intelligent cameras.” said Hideaki Nakayama, President & Representative Director of Allion Japan Inc.

NICE Alliance continues to develop and enhance the ecosystem, which will be open for all companies and interest groups who would like to participate as NICE members.

About NICE Alliance

Industry leading electronics manufacturers and brands Foxconn, Nikon, Scenera, Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Wistron formed the NICE Alliance, an innovative ecosystem standard for smart camera and AIoT markets, to provide an open data sharing platform based on image data and AI to enhance the synergistic effect of multi-brand, multi-camera and multi-service/application.

Contacts

MEDIA CONTACTS

NICE Contact Office
info@nicealliance.org

Regional Promoter Contact
USA: Lydia You lydia@scenera.net
Greater China: Willis P.H. Huang willis.ph.huang@polightech.com
Japan: Yayoi Hayakawa Yayoi.Hayakawa@sony.com