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#AI-RAN, #Event
November 13th, 2024 - SoftBank announced the launch of its new AI-RAN product, "AITRAS," at a media briefing held at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus ("SFC"). At the briefing, SoftBank provided an update on the development of AI-RAN and shared detailed information about AITRAS.
SoftBank has initiated full-scale development of an integrated solution "AITRAS," enabling AI and RAN (Radio Access Network) to operate on the same NVIDIA accelerated computing platform. AITRAS is a high-performance, high-quality carrier-grade solution aimed at deployment in SoftBank's commercial network and with plans for domestic and international expansion starting in 2026By operating AI and RAN efficiently on the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip platform, it achieves reduced power consumption and enhanced stability. Additionally, integration with virtualization infrastructure enables optimized resource allocation. Implementing AITRAS allows telecom operators to continue investing in existing RAN infrastructure while simultaneously building AI capabilities, paving the way for more efficient network operations.
Nov 13, 2024
Press Release
Press Releases on AI-RAN Development
#AI-RAN
Ryuji Wakikawa, Head of the Research Institute of Advanced Technology, announced that SoftBank is developing "AITRAS" as an original product based on the AI-RAN concept.
Wakikawa elaborated, “Moving forward, we aim to involve other telecom operators in the shift towards AI-RAN. To achieve this, it is essential to further embed AI-RAN into the telecom industry.”
Development of AI-RAN Solution（Japanese only）
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Junichi Miyakawa, President & CEO, stated, “To achieve better communication, SoftBank will rebuild its entire network with AI-RAN. Today marks the very first step in this journey.”
Message from the President(Japanese Only)
In response to questions, Wakikawa confidently stated, “Currently, we are working to run AI on servers designed for RAN, but GPUs continue to evolve. As AI becomes more widespread, we foresee a future where RAN will run RAN on servers originally built for AI. It is imperative that we stay ahead of this technological evolution.”
（Japanese only）
In the latter part of the briefing, researchers from the Research Institute of Advanced Technology delivered technical explanations and conducted demonstrations of AITRAS.
"RAN"(Japanese Only)
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"AI" and "Orchestrator"(Japanese Only)
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"Cloud(LLM) Robot"(Japanese Only)
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"Autonomous Driving Monitoring Application"(Japanese Only)
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"NVIDIA Serverless API @Edge"(Japanese Only)
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"RAG Menu @Edge"(Japanese Only)
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The AI-RAN proof-of-concept environment built at SFC has been unveiled. We invite you to take a closer look.
SFC demonstration experiment environment introduction video
SoftBank will continue its efforts to achieve next-generation social infrastructure through AI-RAN. The development of AITRAS will also be further accelerated, with the goal of delivering more efficient and high-quality network services. We invite you to look forward to what lies ahead.
