Nokia, SKT, NTT and DOCOMO demo AI-native 6G air interface

The four companies will show a video demonstration of what they have awkwardly abbreviated to AI-AI at SKT’s booth at MWC next week.

The four companies say they will expand the scope and scale of 6G AI-AI testing and validation, as well as explore a broader range of business use cases for the technology.

They intend to put the technology to the test using ‘selected use cases and real environmental scenarios.’ These over-the-air validation tests will be conducted both in the lab and outdoors to best simulate real network results, we’re told.

They will also cooperate on improving AI model performance by utilizing data generated from real networks or through simulations. This will be ‘instrumental in developing AI training models for a best-in-industry AI-AI solution,’ we’re told.

“For Nokia to create a world-class 6G system, it’s critical we get input from the service providers that will one day deploy 6G. SKT, NTT and DOCOMO are among the most innovative service providers in the world, which gives us the perfect partners to design the networks of the future,” said Peter Vetter, President of Bell Labs Core Research at Nokia.

Yu Takki, Vice President and Head of Infra Tech at SKT, added: “This milestone represents a significant step forward in collaborative efforts towards the development of 6G core technology involving technology leaders from Korea, Japan, Europe and the United States. SKT will maintain its momentum in its R&D efforts of applying AI technology to network infrastructure as we move forward to become a global AI company.”

It's all pretty vague stuff, but perhaps the foursome are keeping their powder dry ahead of the big reveal in Barcelona next week.

In similar-Ish news, Nokia this week announced that it is collaborating with Nvidia on some on Cloud RAN solutions based on Nvidia Grace CPU Superchip for Layer 2+ processing, Nokia’s high-performance, energy-efficient In-Line Layer 1 (L1) accelerator technology, and Cloud RAN software. Additionally, Nokia will use Nvidia GPUs for AI applications and vRAN acceleration, paving the way for AI-RAN – which is a new one.

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “This is an important collaboration with Nvidia that will explore how artificial intelligence can play a transformative role in the future of our industry. It is a further example of our anyRAN approach that is helping to make Cloud RAN a commercial reality. The strength of our industry collaborations means we can drive efficiency, innovation, openness, and scale by delivering competitive advantage to operators and enterprises.”

Again, we can probably expect them to flesh out the details on the Nokia stand next week at MWC.