SoftBank Corp. and Ericsson Sign MoU for
Joint Research and Development to Advance AI-RAN

SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”), as part of its ongoing collaboration on AI-RAN with Ericsson^*1, conducted an operational verification of Ericsson Cloud RAN (Radio Access Network) software on a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) platform and defined the architecture. Following this achievement, SoftBank and Ericsson signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) to expand their collaboration to further advance AI-RAN and conduct joint research and development in applied fields.

SoftBank, in collaboration with Ericsson, conducted the following verification and evaluation to confirm the feasibility of AI-RAN utilizing the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and Ericsson Cloud RAN.

• Verification testing of Ericsson Cloud RAN software running on the Grace CPU (Central Processing Unit) within the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip.
• Architecture definition for running AI applications on the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip operating Ericsson Cloud RAN software.

Based on these results, SoftBank and Ericsson agreed to jointly take on the following new research and developments as challenges that shift toward more applied research areas.

• Expand the operation method of Ericsson Cloud RAN software running on the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip to utilize GPUs, and conduct verification.
• Achieve an optimal coexistence method for AI and vRAN (virtualized Radio Access Network) applications by integrating the orchestrator^*2 of SoftBank's converged AI-RAN solution “AITRAS”^*3 and Ericsson's open network management and automation platform.
• Optimize the placement of control functions for robot AI applications using Ericsson's compute offloading framework.

By expanding this collaboration and integrating SoftBank's AITRAS with Ericsson Cloud RAN, both companies expect advancements in RAN technology and mobile networks, while also enabling substantial progress in the robotics industry.

Hideyuki Tsukuda, Executive Vice President & CTO at SoftBank Corp. said: “Building on our previous activities, this expansion into joint research and development between SoftBank and Ericsson toward future network deployment represents an important step forward in the evolution of AI-RAN technology. We will build SoftBank's infrastructure with AI-RAN and evolve it into next-generation communication infrastructure that supports AI.”

Jawad Manssour, President and Representative Director, Ericsson Japan said: “The progress made in our collaboration with SoftBank underscores our commitment to pioneering innovations in telecommunications. These achievements mark significant milestones in our journey to empower communications service providers with more efficient and versatile networks.”

[Notes]

1. *1
   For more details on the joint research announcement, please refer to the press release dated October 7, 2024: “Ericsson and SoftBank Corp. step up collaboration on AI-RAN integration to enhance network efficiency and performance”
2. *2
   For more details on the orchestrator, please refer to the press release dated November 13, 2024: “SoftBank Corp. Develops Orchestrator to Operate AI and vRAN on the Same Virtualized Infrastructure”
3. *3
   For more details on AITRAS, please refer to the press release dated November 13, 2024: “SoftBank Corp. Announces Development of “AITRAS,” a Converged AI-RAN Solution”

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