The functional application platform interface (FAPI) is an initiative within the small cell industry to encourage competition and innovation among suppliers of platform hardware, platform software and application software by providing a common API around which suppliers of each component can compete. In doing this, we imitate a long and distinguished engineering tradition of providing an ‘interchangeability of parts’ to ensure that the systems vendors can take advantage of the latest innovations in silicon and software with minimum barriers to entry, and the least amount of custom re-engineering.
This document defines both the P5 and P7 interfaces for 5G cells.