Red Hat and SoftBank have announced a collaboration on joint research and development of artificial intelligence radio access network (AI-RAN) technologies. The resulting solutions will be intended to help maximise the use of AI for enhanced network orchestration and optimisation, and aim to deliver intelligent, autonomous networks with improved performance, higher resource efficiency and a better user experience. These are particularly critical in supporting 5G and future 6G network use cases where AI-enabled applications can leverage these solutions for differentiated service offerings and new revenue streams.
Red Hat and SoftBank are advancing the integration of high performing AI technology, running on Red Hat OpenShift, within the radio access network (RAN) infrastructure to enable faster data processing and resource optimisation for service providers to achieve enhanced performance, intelligent automation and enhanced multi-layer security. This approach helps service providers redefine network operations and unlock new revenue opportunities with scalable, secure management of both virtualised RAN and AI applications on a single, unified platform. As part of this collaboration, Red Hat and SoftBank are focused on the following:
- Support for AI and RAN functions on Arm architecture for better optimisation, compatibility and performance of a flexible RAN solution built on Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes;
- Performance optimisation of distributed units (DU) on hardware accelerated Arm architecture for low latency and high-throughput communication, helping to address the evolving needs of future networks;
- Development of an orchestrator, in collaboration with NVIDIA, for intelligent and autonomous network operations that can enhance service availability, agility and quality of experience.
According to a Red Hat-sponsored sustainability study, RAN is responsible for 75% of a service provider’s total power consumption. By adopting better resource optimisation and power use, service providers can reduce their energy consumption and advance their sustainability goals.
Lastly, in order to make this technology available to the broader telecom industry, SoftBank and Red Hat will work together to help deliver new AI use cases through the development of an open and interoperable RAN ecosystem. Through their membership in the AI-RAN Alliance, both companies will have the opportunity to collaborate with industry ecosystem partners and research institutions to help advance research and conduct additional proof-of-concept testing for new AI-RAN technologies and solutions.
Chris Wright, Senior Vice President of Global Engineering and Chief Technology Officer, Red Hat said, “AI has the potential to revolutionise how service providers operate, and a standardised platform is crucial for cost-effective, efficient and automated operations. Through collaborations like this one, Red Hat and SoftBank are able to help service providers navigate this terrain by making AI easier to develop and deploy from the edge to core to hybrid cloud and back, all on the trusted foundation of Red Hat OpenShift. This joint effort will help service providers leverage AI models in the RAN for streamlined operations, new and exciting applications and more automation than ever before.”
Ryuji Wakikawa, Vice President, Head of Research Institute of Advanced Technology, SoftBank” added, AI-RAN’s software foundation serves as a robust RAN platform that not only meets the stringent performance requirements of RAN but also enables seamless AI application integration. We have newly designed and developed the orchestrator specific to the AI-RAN, showcasing our ability to operate this essential component. Our collaboration with Red Hat will accelerate the ongoing evolution of our platform, ensuring rapid advancements and contributing this innovation not just within SoftBank, but to the entire telecom industry.”
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