Ericsson and SoftBank Corp. have announced progress in their joint research on integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Radio Access Network (RAN) technologies. As part of their collaboration, the companies successfully demonstrated a prototype of Ericsson Cloud RAN software running on NVIDIA’s GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and defined an architecture for orchestrating both RAN and AI applications on the same infrastructure. To further accelerate AI-driven network evolution, Ericsson and SoftBank have agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to extend their research efforts.
The next phase of collaboration will explore offloading selected RAN functions to GPUs using the NVIDIA GH200 platform and prototyping AI and RAN workload orchestration by integrating SoftBank’s AITRAS orchestrator with Ericsson’s open network management and automation platform. Additionally, the companies will research optimal AI computation placement for robotics applications using Ericsson’s compute offloading framework. These efforts aim to enhance efficiency in mobile networks and expand AI applications beyond telecommunications.
Ericsson and SoftBank are founding members of the AI-RAN Alliance, launched at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2024, which seeks to integrate AI into cellular technology to advance RAN and mobile network capabilities. With this continued collaboration, both companies are positioning AI-RAN as a cornerstone of next-generation communication infrastructure.
• Ericsson and SoftBank demonstrated AI-RAN integration, running Ericsson Cloud RAN software on NVIDIA’s GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip.
• New research will explore GPU-based RAN function offloading and AI workload orchestration using SoftBank’s AITRAS and Ericsson’s automation platform.
• Ericsson’s compute offloading framework will be used to optimize AI computation placement for robotics applications.
• The companies will extend their collaboration with an MoU, reinforcing their commitment to AI-RAN advancements.
• Ericsson and SoftBank are founding members of the AI-RAN Alliance, focused on AI-driven RAN evolution.
“The progress made in our collaboration with SoftBank underscores our commitment to pioneering innovations in telecommunications. These achievements mark significant milestones in our journey to empower communications service providers with more efficient and versatile networks,” said Jawad Manssour, President and Representative Director, Ericsson Japan.
