Zero‐Touch Network and Service Management - 6G Frontiers - Wiley Online Library

Future sixth-generation (6G) networks are expected to have fully automated (zero-touch) network services and management. This chapter discusses the needs of automated network and service management for 6G. It details the zero-touch network and service management (ZSM) architecture and its components. One of the main design objectives of the ZSM reference architecture is its ability to achieve zero-touch-enabled network and service management, irrespective of the vendors. The architecture of the ZSM was created to fully automate the network and service management in the environments with multidomains, where the operations span across the legal boundaries of the organizations. The goal of automation is to drive services through an autonomous network governed by a set of high-level policies and rules. Enabled by the ZSM implementation, fifth-generation and beyond networks can be operated independently, that is, without human intervention.

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6G Frontiers: Towards Future Wireless Systems