ETSI recently announced two major specifications released by the ETSI Zero-touch network and Service Management (ZSM) Industry Specification Group.
ETSI GS ZSM 001 describes ZSM Requirements and ETSI GS ZSM 002 defines the ZSM Reference Architecture. The glossary of terms and concepts related to ZSM is provided in ETSI GS ZSM 007 that was published along with these specifications.
ETSI GS ZSM 001 examines various business-oriented scenarios and the related automation challenges faced by operators and other industry sectors, and defines the architectural, functional and operational requirements for end-to-end network and service automation. The ZSM architecture specified in ETSI GS ZSM 002 was designed to satisfy these requirements. The architecture is modular, flexible, scalable, extensible and service-based. It is designed for closed-loop automation and optimized for data-driven machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms.
The architecture supports the separation of management and automation into different areas of concern, which prevents monolithic systems, reduces complexity and enables domain and end-to-end management to evolve independently. The ETSI ZSM architecture was designed for open interfaces as well as model-driven service and resource abstraction.
The group paid close attention to the issue of security, ensuring the security and privacy of data being transmitted, processed or stored within the ZSM framework as well as the security of the ZSM framework components.
Full end-to-end automation of network and service management has become an urgent necessity to deliver the 5G services with agility and speed and ensure the economic sustainability of the very diverse set of services. The ultimate target is to create autonomous networks which will be capable of self-configuration, self-monitoring, self-healing and self-optimization without further human intervention.
