NVIDIA has announced new collaborations with T-Mobile, MITRE, Cisco, ODC, and Booz Allen Hamilton to jointly develop AI-native wireless network technologies for the future 6G era. The effort centers on building an AI-native network stack using NVIDIA’s AI Aerial platform to embed artificial intelligence directly into the next-generation radio access network (RAN) and core network architecture. The initiative aims to boost spectral efficiency, reduce network complexity, and enable highly automated and secure wireless networks capable of supporting a massive increase in connected devices, from sensors to autonomous systems.
As part of this effort, NVIDIA and its partners will co-develop an open, AI-native wireless stack combining AI with software-defined RAN technologies, hosted on a unified accelerated infrastructure. T-Mobile will expand its existing AI-RAN Innovation Center partnership with NVIDIA, focusing on researching advanced 6G use cases. MITRE will contribute open-source prototypes in AI-driven network orchestration and dynamic spectrum sharing. Cisco will provide expertise in mobile core technologies and end-to-end network security. ODC will focus on AI-native ORAN 2.0 software for centralized and distributed RAN units, while Booz Allen Hamilton will develop AI RAN algorithms and security testing to harden the AI-native platform against advanced cyber threats.
These partnerships build on NVIDIA’s broader AI-RAN and 6G research ecosystem, which now includes new tools such as the Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin Service and Sionna Research Kit for simulating and deploying AI-native wireless technologies. The collective goal is to create an end-to-end AI-native 6G framework that will drive new levels of network efficiency, automation, and secure communications for a broad range of future applications.
• NVIDIA partners with T-Mobile, Cisco, MITRE, ODC, and Booz Allen to co-develop AI-native wireless technologies for 6G.
• The initiative builds on NVIDIA’s AI Aerial platform to integrate AI into next-gen RAN and core network stacks.
• T-Mobile expands its AI-RAN Innovation Center efforts with NVIDIA to explore 6G concepts.
• MITRE will contribute research on AI-driven orchestration, spectrum sharing, and integrated sensing.
• Cisco will provide mobile core and security expertise; ODC will deliver AI-native ORAN 2.0 software.
• Booz Allen will lead cybersecurity and advanced use case testing for the AI-native platform.
“Next-generation wireless networks will be revolutionary, and we have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure AI is woven in from the start,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.
- In September 2024, NVIDIA launched AI Aerial, an advanced AI-driven platform designed to meet the evolving demands of next-generation telecommunications networks. This platform offers telecom providers a full suite of capabilities, combining cutting-edge software and hardware for developing, training, and deploying AI radio access network (AI-RAN) technology. The primary aim of AI Aerial is to optimize wireless networks, improving efficiency and performance while reducing the total cost of ownership. It also opens new revenue opportunities for telecom operators, particularly as AI expands into areas such as autonomous vehicles, generative AI, smart factories, and robotics.
- At the core of NVIDIA AI Aerial is its support for dynamic, AI-based workload allocation across 5Gand 6G networks, increasing capacity utilization by 2-3 times. The platform integrates CUDA-Accelerated RAN, which provides access to high-performance software libraries designed to enable the development and deployment of virtualized RAN workloads on NVIDIA’s accelerated compute platforms. This ensures the efficient handling of complex networking functions, especially for AI-driven services. By utilizing AI Radio Frameworks—based on PyTorch and TensorFlow—telecom operators can develop, train, and deploy AI models that improve spectral efficiency and introduce new capabilities to radio signal processing for 5G and future 6G systems. This suite also includes NVIDIA Sionna, a tool specifically designed for simulating and training neural network-based 5G/6G algorithms, improving network performance through AI-enhanced signal processing.