Ericsson has announced that it is stepping up its focus on network application programming interfaces (APIs) at its India research and development (R&D) centres.
Network APIs allow new and existing industry sectors to utilise the advanced capabilities of telecommunications networks. Today even as service providers are delivering the benefits of 5G to consumers and enterprises, they have an opportunity to transform the network into a platform for innovation by making advanced 5G network capabilities available to the global developer community through open network APIs. For example, capabilities such as quality on demand and network slicing can be made available through programmatic interfaces. High-performing, open, programmable networks that utilise 5G standalone (SA) architecture provide new opportunities for service innovation and open up possibilities for performance-based business models.
In this regard, Ericsson recently announced a new venture with some of the world’s leading service providers, including Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, to combine and sell APIs on a global scale to spur innovation in digital services. Network APIs are the way to easily access, use and pay for network capabilities. The venture will drive implementation and access to common APIs from multiple telecom service providers to a broader ecosystem of developer platforms.
Commenting on the announcement, Andres Vicente, head, Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, said, “We are stepping up the work on artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI (GenAI) and network APIs at our R&D centres in India. The synergy of high-performance and programmable networks, combined with network APIs and a vibrant ecosystem of developers, will create a powerful network effect of growth and innovation. And this represents a big opportunity for India with its thriving developer and startup ecosystem.”
The R&D teams will work on developing programmable/API capabilities to support simplified and secure network interfaces, and advanced use cases, including device management, security, and fraud detection.
Engineering teams at Ericsson R&D sites in Chennai, Bengaluru and Gurugram work across telecom domains spanning transport, packet core, OSS, BSS, cloud and advanced AI technologies. The Ericsson 6G research teams in India are working on several advanced technologies like Intent-based autonomous telecom networks, trustworthy AI, sustainable AI and advanced GenAI capabilities. Ericsson is today partnering with premier institutes in India for radio, AI and cloud research.
Furthermore, Ericsson has integrated AI into its product and service offerings, successfully implementing AI solutions in customer networks to tackle challenges in network planning, deployment and operations. Using Gen AI, Ericsson has developed intelligent assistants, which enable engineers to engage in natural language conversations with the network while extracting key network insights from multiple data sources. This has significantly shortened the time it takes to perform tasks such as network monitoring and troubleshooting. This reduction in time and effort is made possible by the growing AI capabilities in Ericsson’s portfolio, including Ericsson’s in-house Gen AI platform, known as Ericsson Language Intelligence (ELI), which comprises of a suite of large language models optimised for telecom use cases. The India R&D Centre is significantly involved in the development of the internal ELI platform, including the ‘GenAI driven Network Autonomy’ demo being showcased at the Ericsson booth at the India Mobile Congress.
