Competing mobile industry standards bodies have united to agree on a common approach to information modelling in network functions virtualisation, amid fears it is too fragmented.
Standard bodies and open source communities met this week in Colorado, USA, in the first step of trying to accelerate the alignment of each of their activities.
The adoption of NFV is being stymied by a range of different data models being used by standards organisations and open source developers.
This disparity in models is leading to "increased cost and delaying time to market", said the standards organisation.
One standard for information modelling is seen as important because it allows telcos to deliver NFV's services and network automation capabilities in a more efficient way.
Another advantage is it will lead to open APIs, allowing the technology to be more efficiently integrated across the industry.