The OpenTelemetry Protocol Exporter uses the OpenTelemetry Protocol to send
the telemetry data to a collector. For ways to generate that telemetry data,
you should look into the OpenTelemetry API distribution (if you are a library
author) or the OpenTelemetry::SDK distribution (if you are an application
author).

The telemetry data provided by the API and SDK distributions needs to be sent
and collected somewhere for processing. This distribution provides an OTLP
exporter class that can be used to send telemetry data to a collector that
supports that protocol.

This distribution will be used by the OpenTelemetry::SDK distribution to send
telemetry data (if configured to do so). If you are not writing an application
that will send telemetry data to a collector, then you are unlikely to need
distribution directly.