Zero-touch Service Management for 6G verticals: Smart Traffic Management Case Study

Abstract

The diversity of Beyond 5G (B5G)/Sixth-Generation (6G) technologies and the increasing density of Internet-of-Things (IoT) clients are pushing the traditional MANagement and Orchestration (MANO) into more complex scenarios. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Industry Specification Group (ISG) Zero-touch Network and Service Management (ZSM) has published several documents that present ZSM as a visionary concept, which promises to deliver benefits for B5G and 6G networks, such as increased efficiency in MANO and for tackling the challenges and limitations endured in the transition from human-intervention assisted network management to fully autonomous network management. This work-in-progress paper provides insights into the recent trends in defining and developing ZSM, the efforts towards standardization of its guidelines, coverage of existing solutions that apply the ZSM principles, a discussion about the imperative of its adoption in the domains of the evolving mobile generations and a proposal for its application in a vehicular use case of Smart Traffic Management (STM), where B5G/6G applications are enhanced by a robust ZSM capability of edge resources, to improve the effectiveness of STM.