The collaborations are anchored in an AI-native wireless network stack built on the NVIDIA AI Aerial platform
During NVIDIA GTC, taking place this week, the chip company announced a series of partnerships with industry leaders, including T-Mobile, MITRE, Cisco, ODC and Booz Allen Hamilton, to advance the development of AI-native wireless networks and 6G technology. These collaborations aim to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into next-generation network hardware, software and architecture, setting new benchmarks in spectral efficiency, network performance and telco innovation.
“Next-generation wireless networks must be fundamentally integrated with AI to seamlessly connect hundreds of billions of phones, sensors, cameras, robots and autonomous vehicles,” NVIDIA stated in a press release. “AI-native wireless networks will provide enhanced services for billions of users and set new standards in spectral efficiency — the rate at which data can be transmitted over a given bandwidth. They will also offer groundbreaking performance and resource utilization while creating new revenue streams for telecommunications companies.”
Expanding the AI-RAN ecosystem
NVIDIA’s collaborations will be anchored in an AI-native wireless network stack built on the NVIDIA AI Aerial platform, enabling software-defined radio access networks (RANs) on NVIDIA’s accelerated computing infrastructure. AI-RAN, a technology that merges AI and RAN workloads on a single platform, represents a significant step towards achieving network energy efficiency goals and realizing AI revenue streams for telecom operators. It is also positioned as a critical step toward fully AI-driven 6G networks.
T-Mobile will expand its AI-RAN Innovation Center, launched with NVIDIA in 2024, to accelerate research into AI-native 6G capabilities. The company sees AI integration as a key factor in delivering the high performance and scalability required for future wireless networks.
“This is an exciting next step in our efforts to natively integrate AI into the network as we begin the journey to 6G,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “Working with these additional industry leaders will enable the network performance, efficiency, and scale to power the next generation of experiences that customers and businesses expect.”
MITRE to be NVIDIA’s founding research partner
Nonprofit R&D organization MITRE will serve as NVIDIA’s founding research partner for 6G and will work on a “ground-up redesign” of wireless networks and infrastructure, with an emphasis on utilizing and enabling AI advancements. MITRE will serve as NVIDIA’s founding research partner for 6G.
As part of this collaboration, MITRE will develop and prototype new AI-driven services and applications for wireless networks. Applications may include integrated sensing and communications, dynamic spectrum sharing and agentic network organization and security.
Of this last application, MITRE Chief Technology Officer Charles Clancy told RCR Wireless News that while 5G network slices, underpinned by software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), offer huge potential for software-defined infrastructure, they are “cumbersome” to manage, and therefore, we’ve yet to seen the sort of real-time, responsiveness in the 5G core we’d hoped for.
“AI agents have the potential to change that dramatically,” Clancy continued. “Given higher-level guidance on network objectives, they can collaborate to turn the knobs and pull the levers much faster than a human operator. By coupling this with cyber sensors, we can combat threats in real time. By ingesting network metadata they can tune performance dynamically. Linking to x/rApps we can manage RAN infrastructure as well. And all of this can be done through existing 5G network interfaces.”
NVIDIA also working with Cisco, ODC and Booz Allen
Additionally, NVIDIA shared that Cisco will lead efforts in mobile core and network technology, leveraging its extensive experience in secure infrastructure; ODC will develop AI-native Open RAN software, bridging the gap between 5G and 6G; and Booz Allen Hamilton will focus on AI-RAN algorithms and cybersecurity, conducting performance and security testing for AI-driven wireless platforms.
“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. “Working with leaders in the field, we’re building an AI-enhanced 6G network that achieves extreme spectral efficiency.”
