Review
A survey on Zero touch network and Service Management (ZSM) for 5G and beyond networks

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2022.103362Get rights and content
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Abstract

Faced with the rapid increase in smart Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and the high demand for new business-oriented services in the fifth-generation (5G) and beyond network, the management of mobile networks is getting complex. Thus, traditional Network Management and Orchestration (MANO) approaches cannot keep up with rapidly evolving application requirements. This challenge has motivated the adoption of the Zero-touch network and Service Management (ZSM) concept to adapt the automation into network services management. By automating network and service management, ZSM offers efficiency to control network resources and enhance network performance visibility. The ultimate target of the ZSM concept is to enable an autonomous network system capable of self-configuration, self-monitoring, self-healing, and self-optimization based on service-level policies and rules without human intervention. Thus, the paper focuses on conducting a comprehensive survey of E2E ZSM architecture and solutions for 5G and beyond networks. The article begins by presenting the fundamental ZSM architecture and its essential components and interfaces. Then, a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art for key technical areas, i.e., ZSM automation, cross-domain E2E service lifecycle management, and security aspects, are presented. Furthermore, the paper contains a summary of recent standardization efforts and research projects towards the ZSM realization in 5G and beyond networks. Finally, several lessons learned from the literature and open research problems related to ZSM realization are also discussed in this paper.

Keywords

Zero-touch network and Service Management
Machine learning
Artificial intelligence
Security
5G
6G
Service management
Automation
Orchestration

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Madhusanka Liyanage is an Assistant Professor/Ad Astra Fellow and Director of Graduate Research at the School of Computer Science, University College Dublin, Ireland. He is also acting as a Docent/Adjunct Professor at the Center for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland, and Honorary Adjunct Professor of Network Security, The Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. He received his B.Sc. degree (First Class Honors) in electronics and telecommunication engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, in 2009, the M.Eng. degree from the Asian Insttute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand, in 2011, the M.Sc. degree from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France, in 2011, and the Doctor of Technology degree in communication engineering from the University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, in 2016. From 2011 to 2012, he worked as a Research Scientist at the I3S Laboratory and Inria, Sophia Antipolis, France. He was also a recipient of the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship and Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship during 2018-2020. During 2015–2018, he has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the CSIRO, Australia, the Infolabs21, Lancaster University, U.K., Computer Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Australia, School of IT, University of Sydney, Australia, LIP6, Sorbonne University, France and Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Oxford, U.K. He is also a senior member of IEEE. In 2020, he received the “2020 IEEE ComSoc Outstanding Young Researcher” award by IEEE ComSoc EMEA. In 2021, he was ranked among the World’s Top 2% Scientists (2020) in the List prepared by Elsevier BV, Stanford University, USA. Also, he was awarded an Irish Research Council (IRC) Research Ally Prize as part of the IRC Researcher of the Year 2021 awards for the positive impact he has made as a supervisor. He is also currently an expert consultant at European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA). In 2021, Liyanage was elevated as Funded Investigator of Science Foundation Ireland CONNECT Research Center, Ireland. Moreover, he is an expert reviewer at different funding agencies in France, Qatar, UAE, Sri Lanka, and Kazakhstan. Dr. Liyanage’s research interests are 5G/6G, SDN, IoT, Blockchain, MEC, mobile and virtual network security. More info: www.madhusanka.com.

Quoc-Viet Pham received the B.S. degree in electronics and telecommunications engineering from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam, in 2013, and the Ph.D. degree in telecommunications engineering from Inje University, Republic of Korea, in 2017. He has been a Research Professor with Pusan National University, Republic of Korea, since Feb. 2020. He is specialized in applying convex optimization, game theory, and machine learning to analyze and optimize edge computing and future networks. He has been granted the Korea NRF Funding for outstanding young researchers for the term 2019–2024. He has been a TPC/TPC chair for leading conferences, including IEEE ICC, IEEE VTC, and EAI GameNets. He is an editor of Journal of Network and Computer Applications (Elsevier), Scientific Reports (Nature), and Frontiers in Communications and Networks, and a lead guest editor of the IEEE Internet of Things Journal. He was also the recipient of the Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award in engineering from Inje University in 2017, the Top Reviewer Award from the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology in 2020, and the golden globe award 2021 from the Ministry of Science and Technology (Vietnam).

Kapal Dev is Senior Researcher at Munster Technological University, Ireland and senior research associate at University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the CONNECT Centre, School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). He worked as 5G Junior Consultant and Engineer at Altran Italia S.p.A, Milan, Italy on 5G use cases. He worked as Lecturer at Indus university, Karachi back in 2014. He is also working for OCEANS Network as Head of Projects funded by European Commission. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree by Politecnico di Milano, Italy under the prestigious fellowship of Erasmus Mundus funded by European Commission. His research interests include Blockchain, 6G Networks and Artificial Intelligence. He is very active in leading (as Principle Investigator) Erasmus + International Credit Mobility (ICM), Capacity Building for Higher Education, and H2020 Co-Fund projects. He is also serving as Associate Editor in Springer Wireless Networks, IET Quantum Communication, IET Networks, Topic Editor in MDPI Network, and Review Editor in Frontiers in Communications and Networks. He is also serving as Guest Editor (GE) in several Q1 journals; IEEE TNSE, IEEE TII, Elsevier COMCOM and COMNET, and Tech press CMC. He served as Lead chair in one of IEEE Globecom 2021, IEEE PIMRC 2021, IEEE CCNC 2021 and ACM Mobicom 2021 workshops, TPC member of IEEE BCA 2020 in conjunction with AICCSA 2020, ICBC 2021, SSCt 2021, DICG Co-located with Middleware 2020 and FTNCT 2020. He is expert evaluator of MSCA Co-Fund schemes, Elsevier Book proposals and top scientific journals and conferences including IEEE TII, IEEE TITS, IEEE TNSE, IEEE IoT, IEEE JBHI, and elsevier FGCS and COMNET.

Sweta Bhattacharya is currently associated with Vellore Institute of Technology (University), as an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Technology & Engineering. She has received her Ph.D. degree from Vellore Institute of Technology and Master’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from State University of New York, Binghamton, USA. She has guided various UG and PG projects and published peer reviewed research articles. She is also a member of the Computer Society of India and Indian Science Congress. Her research experience includes working on Pill Dispensing Robotic Projects, as a fully funded Watson Research Scholar at Innovation Associates, Binghamton at SUNY. She has completed six sigma green belt certification from Dartmouth College, Hanover. Her research interests include applications of machine learning algorithm, data mining, simulation and modeling, applied statistics, quality assurance and project management.

Praveen Kumar Reddy Maddikunta is currently working as Assistant Professor Senior in the School of Information Technology and Engineering, VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. He obtained his B.Tech. in CSE from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India, M.Tech. in CSE from VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, and completed his Ph.D. in VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. He was a Visiting Professor with the Guangdong University of Technology, China, in 2019. He worked with Alcatel-Lucent as a software developer in 2013. His research interests include Machine learning, IoT, Federated Learning. He produced more than 75 international/national publications. He is serving as a potential reviewer in many journals like IEEE TII, IEEE ITS, IEEE Access, IEEE IoT Journal, Soft Computing, Applied Soft Computing, Future Generation Computer Systems, etc.

Thippa Reddy Gadekallu is currently working as an Associate Professor in School of Information Technology and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. He obtained his B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from Nagarjuna University, India, Master of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and completed his Ph.D in Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. He has more than 14 years of experience in teaching. He has published more than 60 papers in reputed journals/conferences. Currently, his areas of research include Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Deep Neural Networks, Blockchain, Computer Vision. He is an academic editor in journals like Peerj Computer Science, PLOS ONE, International Journal of Decision Support System Technology (IJDSST), International Journal of Organizational and Collective Intelligence, International Journal of Project Management and Productivity Assessment (IJPMPA). He is also serving as a reviewer in many journals like IEEE TII, IEEE ITS, IEEE Access, IEEE IOT Journal, IEEE Software, IEEE Consumer Electronic Magazine, Soft Computing, Applied Soft Computing, Future Generation Computer Systems, Multimedia Tools and Applications, Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, Wiley ETT, Wiley ITL, Ah HoC Networks, SUSCOM, COMNET, COMCOM, etc.

Gokul Yenduri received his Master’s degree (M.Tech, IT) from Vellore Institute of Technology in the year 2013 . Currently, he is a Research Scholar at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India. His areas of interest are in machine learning, and predictive analysis, software engineering, computer networks, network security. He has worked as an Assistant Professor in past. He attended several National, International Conferences, Workshops, Guest Lectures, and published papers in peer-reviewed international journals. He also carried out several academic responsibilities like a key member in several accreditation committees.