ETSI Zero-Touch Group Goes Network Slicing

The ETSI Zero-touch network and Service Management Group (ZSM) has launched ServoCloud, its first effort to create a reference architecture for dynamic services and a new lighter-weight approach to automating practical operations, starting with 5G network slicing. (See ETSI's Zero Touch Group Gains Support, Kickstarts Its Automation Engine and ETSI's 'Zero Touch' Group Issues Telco Automation White Paper.)

The proof of concept will be hosted by Amazon Web Services Inc. and has Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) as its service provider champions, as well as EnterpriseWeb LLC , Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX), EXFO (Nasdaq: EXFO; Toronto: EXF), Infosim, Metaswitch Networks and Fortinet Inc. as participants. Beginning with a demonstration next month, ServoCloud will focus on the practical aspects of working "across domains to eliminate siloed OSS implementations, synchronize operations and rationalize IT software systems," according to its public Wiki page.

"To do a PoC very soon is one key component of the ISG approach," says DT's Klaus Martiny, chairman of ZSM, which launched in December of last year, in an email response. "Because the belief is that we need an adaption of the way the industry delivers standards."

The idea is not to "start from scratch and create new solutions," he adds but to identify the obstacles to doing end-to-end service management on an automated basis and then either identify existing solutions -- from other standards or open source groups -- or creating new ones.

ServoCloud has an ambitious schedule, with its first demo in July, an expected first report by September, a second demo in the fall and a final or intermediate report in November. The choice of 5G network slicing as a scenario was an obvious one, says Dave Duggal, founder and managing director of EnterpriseWeb, which was also engaged in the first ETSI NFV proof of concept.

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading

This is an edited version of a story that was originally published on Telco Transformation's sister site, Light Reading. To see the full story, click here.