Have you ever bought tickets online via a payment service? Or checked the directions to a public swimming pool via Maps, directly on the swimming pool's website? All this only works because there are APIs. Such APIs are standard in IT, but not yet on networks. Deutsche Telekom will provide these useful interfaces in the future. You can find out exactly what they are for here.
Everything is finely prepared - and comparisons help to understand: A network API is like a waiter in a restaurant. If you want to dine there, you don't have to go into the unknown kitchen (i.e. into the network) and organise the special preparation including the choice of ingredients yourself. The waiter delivers the result.
API - The abbreviation stands for Application Programming Interfaces. Thanks to APIs, computer systems can talk to each other. The advantage: existing applications can be loaded with new functions.
An example: Imagine a plug would be a software programme for a great application. A web shop with online ordering. Now you want to bring your products to the people via delivery service. The delivery service already exists. But the connection to your ordering system is missing. This is hidden behind an "API socket". You receive a programme code from the delivery service. And now you can dock your application with the plug. Win-win!
Such APIs are already standard in IT, but not in networks. In future, Deutsche Telekom will provide these useful interfaces for this purpose. It gives partner companies, for example start-ups, such access to our 5G network. To plug in, developers knead their own software so that it fits like a plug into the API socket. Then they can build, test and deliver helpful applications for our network. For example, for data packets that need to be transmitted particularly quickly. Who needs that? For example, car manufacturers to develop self-parking cars.
Another comparison: an API is like a waiter in a restaurant. If you want to dine there, you don't have to go to the unknown kitchen (i.e. the net) and organise the special preparation including the choice of ingredients yourself. The waiter delivers the result. Analogously, APIs deliver ready-prepared codes that are easy to use.
To make it easier for the entire industry, Deutsche Telekom has initiated the "CAMARA Alliance". This is a global API alliance. Its goal: to create standardised network APIs to meet the demand of enterprise customers. This is supposed to work across borders and in the networks of all mobile network operators.
