ACES - Autonomous canvas-enabled slice management
The Concept
This Innovation Hub Pioneer Project is a collaborative initiative focused on delivering fully autonomous, end-to-end network slice lifecycle management. Built on TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and aligned with the AI & Automation Blueprint and Autonomous Networks framework, the solution enables CSPs to treat network slices as intent driven digital products, not operational constructs.
Scope & key activities
The solution spans the entire network slice lifecycle, from concept to live commercial operation:
- Product creation and negotiation: Intelligent composition and publishing of slice based enterprise offerings through automated negotiation.
- Zero-touch activation: Decomposition of customer intent into cross domain technical actions, executed without manual steps.
- AI driven assurance and optimization: Real-time monitoring, predictive analytics and autonomous remediation to maintain performance and service level commitments.
Together, these capabilities deliver a single, coherent flow—treating the slice lifecycle as one autonomous process rather than disconnected operational tasks.
Outcomes
The solution enables CSPs to make tangible progress toward Autonomous Networks Level 4, delivering clear operational and commercial impact:
- Reduced operating costs and faster time to market
- Elimination of manual provisioning delays
- Increased agility to compete in enterprise connectivity markets
- Interoperability across multi vendor environments through ODA alignment
- A shift from reactive operations to predictive, self managing networks
Ultimately, ACES - Autonomous canvas-enabled slice management becomes more than a network feature - it is a fully automated, revenue generating platform for delivering differentiated Connectivity-as-a-Service at scale.
Join this project
Participants
Other
Projects
Wrapping Network Resources
This TM Forum Innovation Hub Pioneer Project focuses on standardizing network resource management via Open APIs. Achieving Autonomous Networks level 3 or level 4 requires a set of flexible, agile IT systems to standardize how network resources and services are managed. This project aims to enable legacy networks and network resources to be managed alongside the newer, more flexible software-enabled virtual network resources of an Autonomous Network. This will include removing vendor-specific interfaces and redesigning and ‘wrapping the network services and resources with a set of industry-standard management and operational APIs to simplify how network services and resources are managed.
Explore
ODA Accelerator
Advancing the ODA Reference Canvas to support AI-native integration, governed APIs and interoperable component deployment, with enhanced runtime capabilities demonstrated at DTW Ignite 2026
ExploreInnovation Hub Core projects
These projects bring together telco and tech experts to focus on shared industry challenges and accelerate the building of production-ready solutions, faster and cheaper than in-house innovation. Developed and deployed on TM Forum’s Innovation Hub infrastructure, with the support of TM Forum planning, management, and governance, their outputs directly feed into TM Forum’s three Missions - Composable IT and Ecosystems, Autonomous Networks, or AI & Data Innovation. An annual subscription fee enables involvement in up to 5 projects. Click to explore the projects >>
ExploreAPI Petstore
The API Petstore project accelerates the creation, testing, and certification of Open APIs at scale, enabling members to design once and deploy anywhere. With built-in automation, validation, and collaboration tools, the project ensures every API is robust, compliant, and production-ready. New features now allow real-time certification and cross-vendor interoperability, putting it on par with the best developer platforms worldwide while staying rooted in telecom standards.
ExploreComponent Conformance Tooling
The Conformance Tooling project aims to streamline and automate the validation of compliance with TM Forum standards and Open Digital Architecture (ODA). It provides testing, certification, and reporting capabilities to ensure interoperability and consistency across implementations. The tool integrates with existing TM Forum frameworks, offering automated validation, real-time feedback, and comprehensive dashboards. By enhancing quality assurance and accelerating ODA adoption, it supports a standardized approach to digital transformation. The project will progress through technical development, stakeholder engagement, and pilot testing before full deployment.
Explore
Agentic Innovation
The Agentic Innovation project is a collaborative sandbox where members rapidly experiment with generative AI and agentic systems in real telecom environments. It delivers practical outcomes like AI copilots for assurance and orchestration, while embedding transparency, trust, and interoperability with ODA. With recent prototypes proving measurable efficiency gains, TM Forum AI Virtual Assistant (TM Forum AIVA) is positioning itself as the telecom industry’s trusted path to responsible AI adoption - comparable to global AI labs, but laser-focused on connectivity.
ExploreEnd-to-end autonomous fault management across multiple domains
This Innovation Hub Pioneer Project is working on a comprehensive fault management solution piloted at China Mobile, which identifies and resolves base station out-of-service caused by power/environment, wireless, and transmission domains failures. The solution will integrate Agentic single-domain autonomy and cross-domain orchestration to unify multiple domains. The objective is to significantly reduce Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), minimizes FME site visits, and ultimately enhances customer experience (QoE).
ExploreAgentic autonomics: Towards self-remediating networks
This Innovation Hub Pioneer Project is bringing together industry partners to demonstrate an end to end, AI enabled fault management scenario aligned with the Open Digital Architecture (ODA). The project focuses on showcasing how faults can be detected, analysed, and resolved in near real time through a closed loop workflow that integrates observability, AI driven root cause analysis, ticketing, and human in the loop governance, culminating in a live industry showcase at DTW Ignite.
ExploreInnovation Hub Pioneer Projects
Innovation Hub Pioneer Projects (IHPPs) are specialized, high-impact initiatives, part of the TM Forum Innovation Hub ecosystem. Designed to drive practical innovations in telecom, they focus on demonstrating real-world applications. The projects are fixed-term, facilitated by TM Forum but developed externally by members on their own infrastructure. Key outcomes are showcased at TM Forum events. Click to explore the projects >>
ExploreProject Foundation: AI-native ODA canvas
This Innovation Hub Pioneer Project is creating a secure, open, multi‑vendor AI‑native ODA Canvas sandbox where CSPs, vendors, and innovators can build, integrate, and demonstrate AI agents aligned to the TM Forum’s AI‑Native Blueprint. With a “code‑first” approach, the project shifts participants from conceptual discussions to hands‑on, production‑driven engineering across data, agent interactions, and model lifecycle management. At DTW Ignite 2026, this Foundation platform will showcase a live, production-like implementation, powering real use cases such as fault resolution, 5G dynamic slice management, and security agents, positioning the AI-native ODA canvas as a reusable industry reference platform.
ExploreEnd-to-end 5G dynamic slice management
This Innovation Hub Pioneer Project is working on how to manage dynamic 5G slices end-to-end from the customer to the network. This is part of a wider objective to redesign AI-enabled systems and processes for the end-to-end management of the IT and network elements of an autonomous network. This is a key aspect of accelerating the journey to Autonomous Networks level 4, with a set of flexible, agile IT systems to standardize how network resources and services are managed.
Explore