What happened
SoftBank and Nokia said on October 20 they will conduct an AI-RAN field trial in SoftBank's commercial network environment in 2027, running Nokia's anyRAN RAN software on SoftBank's AITRAS platform.
Why it matters
The trial will verify whether AI and RAN workloads can coexist and be managed cooperatively on the same platform while maintaining the communication quality and stability RAN requires, according to the two companies.
What to watch
The field trial is scheduled for 2027 in SoftBank's commercial network environment.
WHO IT HITSTelecom network operators and their RAN software suppliers will be watching whether AI and radio workloads can share one platform without degrading service quality, which could shape how future networks are built.
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The announcement builds on SoftBank's AITRAS platform, which the company developed to run not only its own AITRAS-RAN software but also third-party RAN software and edge AI applications. AITRAS is composed of GPU servers, a virtualization layer, and radio equipment, and its computing base is the NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer MGX 2U Short, which carries NVIDIA Grace CPU, NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU, and NVIDIA ConnectX-8 networking.
In the planned trial, Nokia's anyRAN will run on that AITRAS platform inside SoftBank's commercial network environment. Separately, SoftBank's AITRAS orchestrator will be linked with Nokia's MantaRay network management and automation solution. The stated goal is to verify technology that lets AI and RAN workloads coexist and be managed cooperatively on the same platform while preserving the communication quality and stability that RAN demands.
The two companies have not said when in 2027 the trial will take place or what specific metrics will define success.
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