NTT Docomo, SKT examine the virtual road to AI-RAN

• Influential Asian telcos team up to explore the evolution of virtual RAN and the path to AI-RAN
• They identify three key technical requirements that mobile operators must adopt to maximise their operational and service creation potential

Some of the brightest minds in Asian telecom have joined forces to examine how virtual RAN (vRAN) will evolve and explore the introduction of AI-RAN capabilities with a view to helping mobile operators prepare for the 6G era. 

Teams from Japan’s NTT Docomo and South Korea’s SK Telecom, both the mobile leaders in their respective markets and both renowned as technology and service innovators, have co-published a whitepaper that “reviews the prospects for further enhancement and advancement of vRAN and AI-RAN – which refers to intelligent RAN utilising AI capabilities, also known as AI-centric RAN or AI-native RAN – for mobile operators, as well as the associated technical requirements and enabling technologies based on the companies’ combined experience in mobile network construction and operation.” 

The telco partners, which have been collaborating on the evolution of radio access network technology and architectures since 2022, are also encouraging closer collaboration between mobile operators and equipment vendors in the development of vRAN software.  

SK Telecom’s head of network technology office, Takki Yu, noted that the whitepaper “presents, from a mobile operator’s perspective, the key features essential for maximising the benefits of vRAN adoption and for the future evolution toward AI-native networks.”

Masafumi Masuda, NTT Docomo’s general manager of its radio access design department, added: “We hope to further cooperation between the two major mobile operators in East Asia and to share advanced concepts and innovative technologies with the world to realise the 6G era.” 

As TelecomTV noted this week, there is an increasing sense among industry leaders that the telecom sector in general needs to be doing more to prepare for 6G – see 6G resource anxiety grows.

The whitepaper analyses three key technical requirements that are essential to maximising the benefits of advanced vRAN and AI-RAN. They are:

Strict separation of hardware and software to accelerate new feature introduction: This is regarded as a “critical factor” in enabling software-driven innovation (and, of course, multivendor deployments).

Resource pooling for flexible infrastructure and improved resource utilisation:
Resource pooling technologies “can enable capacity improvements and reductions in power consumption, without compromising service quality, by realising flexible infrastructure and improving resource utilisation” while “supporting more efficient and adaptable network operations”.

Realisation of AI computing capabilities (AI-RAN) by leveraging vRAN systems
Leveraging resource orchestration technologies and an xPU-based architecture (a potential mix of CPU and GPU processors) “enables base stations to provide AI computing capabilities without compromising the quality of mobile communication services. This approach aims to evolve vRAN from a mobile communication platform into an integrated AI platform capable of delivering both mobile communication connectivity and AI services.” 

These topics will be explored during TelecomTV’s upcoming Future of RAN summit. 

The white paper, as well as those previously published by the telco partners, can be accessed here. 

NTT Docomo and SKT say they will “continue their technical cooperation in various fields, including enhancing the competitiveness and operational efficiency of 5G, as well as international standardisation and technology verification towards 6G.” 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV