The Year of the API: A New Era in Network-Aware Applications

The announcement of our industry-first enterprise reference implementation of the CAMARA APIs on February 15, 2024, was a landmark development that could redefine how applications interact with advanced wireless networks and unlock many opportunities for enterprise innovation. 

In today’s digital landscape, network-aware applications are essential for driving innovation and enabling unprecedented rich user experiences across diverse digital environments. As we pass through the second month of 2024, the scale of activity in this space and the breadth of opportunity are crystallizing. Along with the more than $600B investment Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are putting into 5G wireless spectrum and infrastructure, enterprises of all stripes and industries are investing in private, public, and hybrid implementations. They are doing this to overcome multiple challenges with Industry 4.0: a new landscape promising substantial rewards supported by automation, interconnected systems, AI-driven insights from extensive data models and open, cost-effective future-proof infrastructures. The enterprise landscape is truly a driver of network and application evolution.  

CAMARA, part of the Linux Foundation, emerges as a game-changer in this dynamic environment. Initiated in 2021 and officially launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 28, 2022, CAMARA’s mission is to simplify telco network complexity through APIs, making them accessible across networks and countries. Shabodi, as a general member of CAMARA, is deeply invested in the alliance’s success. Shabodi’s mission to Unleash The Power Of Advanced Networks creates a natural synergy to overcome barriers inhibiting network-aware application adoption, growth of advanced networks, and realization of returns on significant investments. The key is the attraction of network-aware applications driving unique user experiences.  

Shabodi’s Network-Aware Application Enablement Platform (AEP) propels applications into network awareness by exposing previously inaccessible network functions through monetizable and application-friendly API packages. This empowers application developers in network-intensive environments, enabling rapid development and deployment in a write-once-deploy-everywhere approach. This flexibility fosters the creation of high-quality applications, delivering richer user experiences and enhanced returns-on-investment (ROI). 

Shabodi’s Network-Aware AEP – Better With CAMARA 

Shabodi has spent over a year extending its API packages to include CAMARA APIs. This effort delivers a reference implementation that not only opens enterprises to a new ecosystem of 5G-ready applications, but also has the benefit of validating and maturing CAMARA APIs in diverse environments. As enterprises implement their advanced networks and related services Shabodi, with CAMARA APIs, is in the right spot to connect applications to networks providing even greater benefits. 

What Shabodi brings to the table with its AEP is the simplification of network integration through application-level APIs. What does this mean? Shabodi’s origins are deep within the networking world with great understanding of what makes networks hum. Along the way, Shabodi has added experts in application development, real-time communications, APIs and user experience. This combined mix has created a comprehensive stack of capabilities, not just technical but also operational, that understands what applications seek in making the tough decisions to embrace new technologies and delve into new markets. Shabodi’s APIs span from simplified for the high-end application developer with no network knowledge right through to wireless gurus creating the latest mobility experiences. The new CAMARA package expands Shabodi’s reach not only providing compliance to an industry-standard model, but also meeting a strategic tenet for Shabodi – to foster boundaryless experiences through multi-vendor multi-network applications. 

Enterprises Benefit From Shabodi’s Reference Implementation 

Porting these applications into diverse networking and operating environments within enterprises further validates and strengthens CAMARA standards. Through its participation in CAMARA, Shabodi aims to accelerate the adoption of advanced network technologies and standards in the enterprise world. In return, Shabodi will contribute updates for interfaces back into the CAMARA community, helping to harden and solidify the standards.  

Shabodi’s reference implementation for enterprises is also intended as a testbed for applications wishing to develop either to MNO, enterprise, or hybrid domains. Shabodi began with a Quality on Demand (QoD) API offering in Shabodi’s AEP 2.0 beta release in the beginning of January and will be generally available by end of March. It will be followed by implementations of Location, Device Status and Connectivity Insights. This new CAMARA API package, available as an add-on for Shabodi’s AEP, will augment Shabodi’s Standard and Advanced Simplified API packages primarily geared toward enterprise and government application developers. The CAMARA APIs will be published, secured, and accessed in the same manner as Shabodi’s existing APIs, so Shabodi AEP developers will have a familiar pattern to guide their adoption of CAMARA. 

As the primary goal of Shabodi’s CAMARA for Enterprise API package is to make it easy to port applications written for CAMARA into the enterprise domain, Shabodi’s API interfaces are completely compliant with current CAMARA standards. Every parameter in the specification – say, for QoD – is replicated in Shabodi’s CAMARA QoD interface, despite being applied in an enterprise environment. Shabodi handles the translation of all APIs to meet the needs and diversity of an enterprise implementation.  

Whether delivering over a private enterprise-owned network or partnering with an MNO, our 5G network-aware application solution facilitates diverse real-world use cases across various industries. Some prominent scenarios include: 

• Mining: A CAMARA-compliant drone application easily ports into a mining site, providing the ability to survey land to aid in finding new drilling, tunnelling or excavating locations. With the drone equipped with optical cameras, LIDAR and infrared cameras, the drone can make multiple sweeps of the surrounding area and relay results back to remote pilots. Fidelity of vision and flight control is provided by continuous adjustment of network resources.  
• Ports: Smart ports are rapidly evolving with remote-piloted cranes, autonomous vehicles and sensor-based location tracking of personnel and assets. A CAMARA-based application can facilitate on-campus (private network) and off-campus (public network) remote operation of machinery utilizing advanced 5G slice setup and selection to meet the changing needs of the port. At the same time, remote cranes and logistics management software interact with CAMARA-based applications, providing continuous situational awareness for port administration. 
• Public Sector and Government: Enable rural network-aware consumption of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) infrastructures. Open communities to new economic potential and public safety services through continuous monitoring and dynamic optimization of network resources. Governments can easily leverage applications designed for public wireless infrastructures to enable private implementations for rural communities using Shabodi’s CAMARA for Enterprise API package. 

Unlimited Tools for Developers of New Applications

Together, we offer simplified network and service monetizable APIs and platforms that enable industry vertical solutions. By simplifying application use and control of network resources new user experiences will abound as enterprises realize the benefits of their Industry 4.0 transformation journeys.  

Schedule a Demo! 

Our team will be attending Mobile World Congress 2024. Schedule a demo or a meeting to discuss the path to monetization for your investment. You can also visit Shabodi in the Canadian Pavilion, Stand #7G51.