Using AI to enable a radical but deployable radio platform

This report analyses the current and future development of the 5G Advanced and putative 6G radio platform, especially in relation to the potential AI-native air interface.

It examines the challenges that MNOs currently face when using 5G radio that is not optimised for the emerging cloud-native RAN environment and does not support radical new use cases and economics.

The report also assesses how new collaborations between various stakeholders could help to address these challenges and produce an AI-native radio platform that would support new business models without imposing a capex-heavy ‘big bang’ upgrade on MNOs.

Key questions answered in this report

• What are the primary shortcomings of the current 5G radio in supporting operator revenue growth and how can they be addressed?
• What is the industry progress towards new waveforms and how could these enable new user experiences and revenue?
• How can the cloud and RAN ecosystems collaborate more effectively to reduce the trade-offs between vRAN and advanced radios?
• What impact could an AI-native air interface have on the performance and commercial success of a future RAN, and what are the main challenges?