Intelligent and Autonomous Management in Cloud-Native Future Networks—A Survey on Related Standards from an Architectural Perspective

Cloud-native network design, which leverages network virtualization and softwarization together with the service-oriented architectural principle, is transforming communication networks to a versatile platform for converged network-cloud/edge service provisioning. Intelligent and autonomous management is one of the most challenging issues in cloud-native future networks, and a wide range of machine learning (ML)-based technologies have been proposed for addressing different aspects of the management challenge. It becomes critical that the various management technologies are applied on the foundation of a consistent architectural framework with a holistic vision. This calls for standardization of new management architecture that supports seamless the integration of diverse ML-based technologies in cloud-native future networks. The goal of this paper is to provide a big picture of the recent developments of architectural frameworks for intelligent and autonomous management for future networks. The paper surveys the latest progress in the standardization of network management architectures including works by 3GPP, ETSI, and ITU-Tand analyzes how cloud-native network design may facilitate the architecture development for addressing management challenges. Open issues related to intelligent and autonomous management in cloud-native future networks are also discussed in this paper to identify some possible directions for future research and development.