API Fabric Analogy
The concept of API Fabric is quite similar to what is followed in Textile industry where the raw fiber is converted to yarn, fabric, which is then used for making different clothing products and finally packaged for consumption by end-user. Similarly here raw APIs exposed by ONAP components are assembled to create façade (quite similar to fabric) and then used for creating productized APIs (quite similar to clothing) that can be subscribed. API Fabric as a solution provides the capability to manage raw APIs and enable operational end-users to develop custom APIs required for operational use cases, combining business logic and enriched data from multiple backend APIs (quite similar to how different type of clothing is made). API fabric facilitate custom use case and application development by easier composition of APIs of ONAP management and orchestration capabilities (quite similar to how different clothing types can be made).
Proof of Concept Context
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The current PoC touch upon above aspects and primarily drives a general theme as to how ONAP can be consumed more efficiently by the operational team, how operational automation can be carried out seamlessly without getting impacted by ONAP releases or variability in ONAP component capabilities.
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- As a wrapper around ONAP to expose simplified, secure and modular capabilities
- To build standard adapters in ONAP
- As an API management and stitching layer for use cases
- As a basic building block of ONAP components to expose a less complex interface
- For much broader integration use cases
- As a means of operational automation