OpenOP Release 2: Advancing the Open Operator Platform

We are pleased to announce Release 2 of the ETSI Software Development Group OpenOP.

Release 1 established the first working implementation of OpenOP. Release 2 significantly strengthens the platform foundation. Its focus is security, standards conformance, automated deployment and testing, and clearer interfaces between the main platform components. Release 2 also expands what users can do with OpenOP. It introduces additional CAMARA APIs, a revamped Portal, our newest module, the Data Lab, end-to-end operator federation and an expanded AI² agent.

What Release 2 Delivers

Release 2 introduces several major improvements:

• A more secure platform, with Keycloak-based authentication and authorization across the Portal, APIs and federation interfaces.
• Improved engineering quality and reproducibility, with major refactoring of the Open Exposure Gateway, the Service Resource Manager and the TF-SDK, clearer component boundaries, broader automated test coverage, and reproducible multi-operator deployments using Helm and Ansible.
• A revamped developer Portal with expanded AI² capabilities, providing a simpler way to access OpenOP and interact with a broader set of platform capabilities through natural language.
• A new Data Lab module, adding support for publishing, discovering and exchanging datasets across distributed environments.
• Expanded CAMARA API support, adding Traffic Influence and improving support for Edge Application Management, Quality on Demand and Location Retrieval.
• End-to-end operator federation, allowing applications to be deployed and managed across participating operator platforms.

Release 2 is also accompanied by a dedicated architecture repository that documents the platform contracts, component responsibilities and key design decisions.

A Stronger Platform Foundation

Several core OpenOP components have been significantly refactored in Release 2.

The Open Exposure Gateway and Service Resource Manager now use a common technology stack based on FastAPI, PostgreSQL and NATS. The interfaces between the main platform components have also been clarified, making OpenOP easier to understand, test and extend.

Keycloak provides authentication and authorization across the platform. Long-running operations now use asynchronous workflows, while the redesigned openop-tfsdk provides a common way to integrate OpenOP with underlying network and edge infrastructure.

These changes are supported by broader automated testing and the new architecture repository.

A Revamped Developer Portal

Release 2 introduces a significantly improved OpenOP Portal.

The Portal is integrated with Keycloak and provides authenticated access to OpenOP through a common developer interface. Users can manage applications and deployments, access network capabilities and interact directly with AI².

Developers can also register API clients and obtain the credentials and tokens needed for their applications to securely access OpenOP APIs.

Introducing the OpenOP Data Lab

Release 2 introduces the first version of the OpenOP Data Lab.

The Data Lab enables the publishing, discovery and exchange of datasets across research and infrastructure environments.

Data Lab 0.1.0 provides public and private metadata catalogues based on DCAT-AP 3.0 and supports the 6G-DALI Metadata Application Profile.

It is versioned independently from the OpenOP core and can be enabled when required.

Federation, End to End

Federation was already introduced in Release 1. Release 2 significantly improves this capability and brings it closer to the relevant industry standards.

The Federation Manager now aligns with the GSMA Operator Platform Group East/Westbound Interface defined in OPG.04 v6.0. It supports partner registration, zone exchange and federated application lifecycle operations.

Federated capabilities are exposed through the Portal, allowing operators to work with partner platforms and available zones through the same interface. Local and federated application deployments follow the same workflow, with OpenOP routing requests through the Federation Manager when the selected zone belongs to another operator.

AI²

AI² has evolved from the Release 1 prototype into a broader natural-language interface to OpenOP.

It now supports a broader set of OpenOP capabilities, including application management and network APIs. It uses the authenticated user’s identity and permissions, so operations follow the same authorization rules as direct API calls. The interface is also integrated into the Portal and supports conversation threads with memory.

What You Can Try with Release 2

With Release 2 you can:

• deploy OpenOP locally on KIND using Helm
• deploy and automatically federate multiple operator platforms using Ansible
• sign in through Keycloak and access OpenOP through the Portal
• deploy applications locally, across multiple zones or through another operator and experiment with Quality on Demand, Traffic Influence and Device Location
• interact with OpenOP through AI² via the Portal
• publish and discover datasets through the Data Lab
• explore the dedicated architecture repository, where the platform architecture is documented using the OKF format for both human and agent-friendly access

The multi-operator environment can also run the OpenOP end-to-end test suite, providing a reproducible way to validate platform behaviour.

Upgrading from Release 1

Release 2 introduces significant architectural and API changes and requires a fresh installation.

Authentication is now required throughout the platform, public API paths have changed, and PostgreSQL replaces the persistence technologies used by several Release 1 components.

Get Started

• Start with the Architecture Overview.
• Deploy using Helm or Ansible and federate multiple operator platforms.
• Use the guides to explore application deployment, network capabilities, federation, AI² and Data Lab.
• Explore the full documentation and access the source code in the ETSI GitLab repository.
• Check out our Contributing Guide to learn how to contribute to OpenOP.

Get Involved

Release 2 provides a stronger foundation for the OpenOP community to build on. We encourage operators, vendors, developers, researchers and research projects to deploy OpenOP, federate their environments, develop new infrastructure adapters and experiment with additional network capabilities — contributions from the community will help shape future OpenOP releases.

Follow the SDG OpenOP LinkedIn and YouTube pages for regular updates, and learn how to join SDG OpenOP, it’s easy and free¹! 🎉

Contact

Questions about ETSI or joining OpenOP can be sent to SDGsupport@etsi.org.