The 5G-MAG Steering Group has recently approved the Work Item "Network Exposure and APIs Supporting Media Services and Applications ".
The scope of the work
Media applications are everywhere today and are playing an important role in the digital landscape. They connect people together through real-time communications and contribute to information distribution and culture around the world. From traditional TV, on-demand streaming to XR tomorrow, the media landscape is continuously evolving, bringing new formats, usages, and connectivity needs.
The usage of 5G for enabling and optimizing multimedia applications has been in the heart of 5G-MAG from its beginning. Whether it is for distribution or contribution, 5G can significantly enhance the performance and user experience through higher data rates, lower latency, better coverage and increased security. Furthermore, 5G enables media applications to be optimized closely to the network, leveraging a powerful set of tools and services defined in 3GPP.
Beyond the baseline technical capabilities and tools offered by 5G, additional network capabilities and services can be used to further enhance the performance, responsiveness and efficiency of media applications and services. Whether it is from the perspective of vertical applications and service providers or from that of Mobile Network Operators, additional functionalities are needed to be exposed from the network to further optimize workflows. Therefore, a set of rich and powerful network exposure interfaces should be available to accelerate the proliferation of services in the market and the scaling of multimedia applications over mobile networks.
Multiple organizations are currently developing network exposure functionalities and APIs for different purposes and targeting interactions between network operators and third parties at different levels.. For media applications, 5G-MAG is currently implementing and using APIs defined by 3GPP for interactions with the 5G Service-based Architecture.
Other recent examples from initiatives such as CAMARA or GSMA Open Gateway are reflected in the following news items:
The multimedia connectivity ecosystem gathered in 5G-MAG has interest in working together to bring common understanding on the applicability of the APIs developed by relevant organizations to harmonize network exposure interfaces and ensure its applicability to relevant applications.
A full work item description is available to members under the Member's platform.
Please check www.5g-mag.com/workitems#wi-013