Subject: [nmrg] Call for Papers - Special Issue on Zero-touch Network and Service Automation (ZSM)

From: "Ciavaglia, Laurent (Nokia - FR/Paris-Saclay)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2020 09:47:20 +0000

Dear NMRG,

Please find below the call for papers for the Special Issue on Zero-touch Network and Service Automation (ZSM) of River Publishers Journal of ICT Standardization (https://www.riverpublishers.com/journal/special_issue.php?si=39)

You are welcome to submit articles. The topics of the special issue are listed below, as well as the timeline and detailed instructions for submission.

We are looking forward to receive from you insightful and highly-qualitative contributions to the issue.

With warm regards,
ZSM Special Issue co-Editors:
- Nurit Sprecher
- Csaba Vulkan
- Vishnu Ram

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Journal of ICT Standardization<https://www.riverpublishers.com/journal/special_issue.php?si=39>

Call for Papers for Special Issue on Zero-touch Network and Service Automation (ZSM)
https://www.riverpublishers.com/journal/special_issue.php?si=39

Guest Editors:

  *   Nurit Sprecher, Nokia
  *   Csaba Vulkan, Nokia
  *   Vishnu Ram, Independent Research Consultant

The telecommunications industry is at an important tipping point, with an opportunity to positively transform the economics and business agility and prepare for new business models for 5G. The big promise of 5G mass deployment is coming from Enterprise and SLA driven applications where automation is important in the creation, maintenance, assurance and healing phases. The GSMA report on Network Slicing Use Cases Requirements estimates that "in combination with other enablers and capabilities, Network Slicing will permit operators to address a revenue opportunity worth $300bn by 2025."

The pivotal deployment of 5G triggers the need for a radical change in the way networks and services are managed and orchestrated. Full end-to-end automation of network and service management has become an urgent necessity for:

  *   Handling the increase in the overall complexity resulting from the transformation into programmable, software-driven, service-based networks, and
  *   Delivering services with unprecedented operational agility and speed, and ensuring the economic sustainability of the diverse set of services offered by Digital Service Providers enabled by technology breakthroughs such as Network Slicing.
The ultimate automation target is to enable largely autonomous networks empowered with advanced cognitive capabilities and driven by high-level policies; these networks will be capable of self-configuration, self-monitoring, self-healing, self-optimization and self-protection without further human intervention. As illustrated by the several academic and industry initiatives (e.g. ETSI ZSM[1], LF ONAP [2], TMF ZOOM and ODA [3], AI-driven ZSM [4]) which are tackling these challenges, realizing such a vision requires a new horizontal and vertical end-to-end architectural framework designed for closed-loop automation and data-driven operations, and optimized for machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms. ETSI ZSM ISG published a service-based architecture for network and service automation [5], acting as a comprehensive and extensible framework.

In this special issue, we invite full papers on the following topics related to ZSM:

     *   High potential areas for AI and ML, and the applicability of AI techniques in ZSM
     *   Gaps, challenges and opportunities with AI in ZSM
     *   Autonomic, cognitive and intent-based networking and management
     *   Closed-loop automation and coordination between closed loops
     *   Network and service analytics and data management framework
     *   Operational experiences on practical use of ZSM framework
     *   Application areas for ZSM innovation (e.g. vertical industries, smart-x)
     *   Comparison with other industries and web scales in their approach to automation
     *   Business and societal drivers as well as incentives for next-generation network and service automation
     *   Automation of large-scale end-to-end network slicing
     *   Edge cloud automation
     *   Security considerations
     *   Standardization landscape related to ZSM

Submission Procedure

     *   Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers which are not under review in any other journal in, but not limited to, topic areas listed above. Extended conference papers (e.g. EURAS) with new insights based on feedback from conference participants, etc. will be considered as well.
     *   If you would like to know if another related topic area fits this special issue, please do not hesitate to contact the Guest Editor

More information can be found on the journal website: https://journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/JICTS/

Important Dates:
Submission Deadline:
October 1, 2020
Decision, reviews to authors:
November 1, 2020
Submission of final version:
December 1, 2020
Final decision:
December 15, 2020

Submission Guideline
Papers should be submitted via https://journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/JICTS/submissions
Author kit is available in https://www.riverpublishers.com/authors.php

References
[1] https://www.etsi.org/technologies/zero-touch-network-service-management
[2] https://www.onap.org/
[3] https://www.tmforum.org/oda/
[4] C. Benzaid and T. Taleb, "AI-Driven Zero Touch Network and Service Management in 5G and Beyond: Challenges and Research Directions," in IEEE Network, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 186-194, March/April 2020, doi: 10.1109/MNET.001.1900252.
[5] https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/ZSM/001_099/002/01.01.01_60/gs_ZSM002v010101p.pdf