NVIDIA AI Aerial Transforming Wireless Networks with AI-RAN Technology

NVIDIA has launched a groundbreaking platform, NVIDIA AI Aerial, which aims to revolutionize how wireless networks operate in the AI era. The platform integrates AI and RAN (radio access network) technology to support new services, optimize networks, and enable a wide range of next-generation applications, including generative AI, autonomous vehicles, 5G, smart factories, and more.

What is NVIDIA AI Aerial?

NVIDIA AI Aerial is a comprehensive suite of hardware and software tools designed to accelerate computing within telecommunications infrastructures. By combining AI with RAN technology, NVIDIA enables telecommunications providers to optimize their networks for the future of AI-driven services. AI-RAN is crucial in modern telecommunications because it allows networks to go beyond just voice and data, supporting sophisticated services like real-time AI applications and network optimization.

The platform allows providers to design, simulate, train, and deploy AI-RAN technology on a large scale. This enables them to meet the demands of emerging services, such as teleoperations for robots, autonomous driving, computer vision, and spatial computing applications. By doing so, NVIDIA AI Aerial provides telecom companies with significant cost savings and opens up new revenue opportunities by hosting generative AI applications, including co-pilots and virtual assistants.

A Platform Optimized for AI and RAN Integration

At the core of NVIDIA AI Aerial is AI-RAN, a software-defined radio access network that is powered by AI. This allows network operators to achieve high-performance and energy efficiency, which is especially critical as demand for AI services continues to grow. By using AI to optimize networks, telecommunications providers can deliver improved network performance and reliability while also reducing operational costs.

In addition to supporting generative AI applications, AI-RAN allows network operators to create a multipurpose infrastructure capable of hosting third-party AI applications at the edge. This could include anything from robotic surgery to 3D collaboration and even 6G advancements, all of which will benefit from enhanced network capabilities powered by AI.

Key Capabilities of NVIDIA AI Aerial

The NVIDIA AI Aerial platform offers a variety of tools and frameworks to help telecom operators at every stage of development, from training models to simulation and deployment. Some of the standout capabilities include:

• NVIDIA Aerial CUDA-Accelerated RAN: This provides software libraries that enable developers and partners to build and deploy high-performance virtualized RAN workloads using NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platforms.

• NVIDIA Aerial AI Radio Frameworks: These frameworks are built on PyTorch and TensorFlow and allow developers to create and train models that can improve spectral efficiency and add new capabilities to 5G and 6G radio signal processing. It includes NVIDIA Sionna, a link-level simulator designed for developing neural network-based 5G and 6G radio algorithms.

• NVIDIA Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin (AODT): This is a system-level platform for creating digital twins of wireless networks. The platform allows telecom providers to perform physically accurate simulations of entire networks, from a single base station to a citywide infrastructure. AODT incorporates both software-defined RAN and user-equipment simulators, providing a realistic model of how networks will perform under different conditions, including terrain and real-world object properties.

Industry Collaboration for Commercialization

NVIDIA has partnered with some of the biggest players in the telecommunications and AI industries, including T-Mobile, Ericsson, and Nokia, to establish the AI-RAN Innovation Center. The goal of this center is to accelerate the commercialization of AI-RAN by providing a collaborative space where the telecom and AI industries can come together to innovate.

"AI-RAN is set to revolutionize the telecom industry, and the opening of the AI-RAN Innovation Center will help drive this transformation," said Tommi Uitto, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia. "By bringing together leading companies in the telecom and AI industries, we can unlock the full potential of AI in our networks, improving performance, reducing costs, and creating new opportunities for our customers."

Ericsson is already working on evaluating the performance of NVIDIA’s accelerated computing in its AI-RAN solution. "We are now evaluating the performance and cost of NVIDIA accelerated computing," said Fredrik Jejdling, EVP and head of Business Area Networks at Ericsson.

A Growing Ecosystem of Partners

NVIDIA’s AI Aerial platform is supported by a wide ecosystem of partners across the telecommunications, software, and hardware industries. Softbank and Fujitsu are notable collaborators, while academic partners such as ETH Zurich, Deepsig, and Northeastern University are contributing to 6G research efforts and NVIDIA Aerial AI Radio Frameworks.

Cloud stack software providers like Aarna Networks, Canonical, Red Hat, and Wind River play a critical role in integrating the platform's capabilities to support advanced telecommunications services. Networking providers such as Arrcus Network and server infrastructure leaders like Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Supermicro are collaborating to accelerate the deployment of AI solutions across the industry.

In addition, edge solution providers like Vapor.io and system integrators such as World Wide Technology are leveraging NVIDIA AI Aerial’s capabilities to enhance decision-making for AI-driven solutions. This collaborative ecosystem enables telecom operators to optimize their networks and explore new business opportunities with cutting-edge AI technology.

NVIDIA AI Aerial: A New Era of AI and Telecommunications

With the launch of NVIDIA AI Aerial, the telecommunications industry is entering a new era where AI integration is at the forefront of innovation. By combining AI-driven RAN technology with the vast capabilities of generative AI, NVIDIA’s platform is positioned to play a critical role in shaping the future of 5G, 6G, and beyond.

To learn more about NVIDIA AI Aerial, visit the NVIDIA AI Aerial webpage.