Revolutionising telecoms: an introduction to TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture

TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) is creating a simpler digital framework for CSPs to transform their BSS/OSS through Open APIs and component-based architectures. Leonardo Hodgson explores how the ODA works, and how Cerillion is keeping compliant.

CSPs today face an ever-growing demand for agility and innovation to deliver next-generation connectivity and services for their ever-demanding customers. However, legacy BSS and OSS solutions still running in the core of many CSPs are hindering this process considerably.

Staying ahead of the curve on the journey to becoming an AI-native telco and keeping customers and partners happy requires a fundamental shift in how CSPs approach enterprise architecture. That’s the key promise of the Open Digital Architecture (ODA).

The ODA is a transformative initiative designed by TM Forum to streamline and modernise the telecoms industry. By providing an industry-led, industry-wide set of open standards, the ODA vision is to replace traditional BSS/OSS solutions by simplifying the integration between software components, making relationships between operators, vendors and partners simpler to manage.

This standardised, enterprise architecture blueprint is designed to serve all participants in the telco ecosystem, from CSPs to suppliers and systems integrators, and not only enhances operational efficiency but also promotes new opportunities for innovation and collaboration in the digital world.

How ODA Works

The ODA is the latest stage of a 20+ year journey led by TM Forum. It all started with the development of a common language through a suite of standards and frameworks to optimise operations between different systems. This laid the foundation for the Open APIs, which have improved integration and helped to modernise legacy systems. Today, the industry is advancing towards a fully plug-and-play ecosystem using components and a canvas as described by the ODA.

Common language

• Business Process Framework (eTOM) is a comprehensive blueprint for process architecture within the telecommunications industry.
• Functional Framework, an evolution from the Application Framework and its predecessor the Telecom Application Map (TAM), offers a structured view of the applications by categorising software into specific domains.
• Information Framework (SID) is a common information model providing a standardised approach to data representation and management, ensuring consistency and accuracy across different systems.
  

Open APIs

The Open APIs are a collection of over 100 standardised RESTful interfaces that act as translators between different software systems. These APIs leverage a shared data model for flexibility and to ensure technology neutrality by using a familiar web-based architecture.

Examples include:

• Managing product lifecycles (catalogues, ordering, inventory)
• Controlling network resources (alarms, devices, activation)
• Tracking customer service consumption (usage data, promotions)

Open APIs facilitate the development of modular, flexible and scalable solutions. They allow for easy connectivity and interaction between legacy systems and new digital services, promoting a plug-and-play ecosystem.

The recently-launched Gen5 Open APIs are the next iteration of these standardised interfaces, designed to simplify development, enable automation through intent-based requests, and support modern event-driven architectures.

Components

The ODA is composed of individual, standardised building blocks called components – pieces of software that can be deployed independently, typically built out of one or more microservices, and integrated through Open APIs to enable a plug-and-play ecosystem.

The ODA components are grouped into five main functional blocks (as of version 13):

• Party Management handles the internal and external parties, such as people, organisations, leads and opportunities. It also handles related sales, marketing, documents and billing activities.
• Core Commerce Management is responsible for activities related to the order and provisioning of product offers. It includes the catalogue management, inventory, bill calculation and commission, among others.
• Production is the largest group, responsible for all activities related to service and resource lifecycle management. It also focuses on supply chain, inventory, workforce and work order management.
• Intelligence Management focuses on analytics, covering areas such as performance, recommendations and insight management.
• Engagement Management is responsible for the interaction with internal and external elements with modules covering channel, content and experience management.

The ODA also includes a set of generic ODA Canvas Operators.

For more details, view the official TM Forum ODA Component Directory.

Canvas

The Canvas is then the practical implementation aspect of the ODA that provides an execution environment for all of the components.

It’s an open source, 99.9% technology-agnostic and cloud-native management solution based on Kubernetes and running on cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud Platform, offering a development-and-test suite to enable users to build, deploy and verify ODA components.

Certification process

The ODA component certification process was announced at the latest TM Forum event, DTW24 – Ignite, in June. Similar to the process for the Open APIs, it will allow vendors to certify their ODA component solutions by running TM Forum’s Conformance Test Kit (CTK), designed to validate the required standards within a compliant ODA Canvas.

CTKs will start being available for download from the TM Forum website from January 2025.

Conclusion

The ODA is still in its infancy, with various components still under specification and many tools and APIs still in beta or under development.

But by offering a common language, standardised infrastructure and automated operations, with strong governance, it stands as a potential solution for the notorious and ever evolving complexity of the BSS/OSS landscape, helping the telecommunications industry to finally achieve agility.

Cerillion, a TM Forum member since 2007, is fully on-board with TM Forum initiatives, having adopted its common language standards for more than ten years. We have already invested heavily in R&D to implement Open APIs into the core of our product suite – at the time of writing, we are platinum-level with 25 certified Open APIs, and have already started on ODA adoption, signing the ODA Manifesto in 2021 and mapping our modules onto the official component blueprint.