ACROSS: Automated zero-touch cross-layer provisioning framework for 5G and beyond vertical services

Abstract

As the demand for advanced and efficient network and service deployment continues to rise, the integration of multiple domains and the incorporation of AI technology are becoming essential. The ACROSS project is a Horizon Europe project, that aims to address this need by proposing an innovative end-to-end service deployment and management platform. This platform is designed to deliver unprecedented levels of automation, performance, scalability, and energy efficiency in the next-gen networks and services landscape. The platform will be built as a highly-distributed grid of domain-level orchestrators, spread across multiple geo-dispersed and potentially heterogeneous edge environments, all overseen by a cloud-managed multi-domain orchestrator. The use of standardised communication interfaces will promote separation of concerns and ensure compliance with ongoing standardization efforts, some of which include ETSI ZSM, ETSI NFV-OSM, TMF, ETSI TFS and ONF. The platform will also be enhanced with deep end-to-end telemetry, AI-driven intelligence, full-stack cross-domain zero-touch provisioning, and secure and trusted orchestration mechanisms.