• Companies will conduct an AI-RAN field trial in Japan in 2027 in a commercial network environment under commercial traffic conditions
• Planned deployment will validate key AI-RAN capabilities using Nokia anyRAN software with the SoftBank AITRAS platform including the Orchestrator

Nokia  announced an agreement with SoftBank Corp. to conduct a commercial AI-RAN field trial in Japan in 2027. The planned deployment will use Nokia’s anyRAN software on SoftBank’s AITRAS, its core platform for AI-RAN, with NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer (ARC), in conjunction with the AITRAS Orchestrator. The companies plan to validate AI-RAN technology in a commercial network environment under commercial traffic conditions.

The upcoming field trial will assess key AI-RAN capabilities in a live commercial network environment and represents an important step in SoftBank’s efforts to commercialize AI-RAN. It will also advance Nokia’s AI-RAN commercialization roadmap by moving the technology from laboratory development toward real-world deployment.

The planned trial will combine Nokia’s AI-native anyRAN Cloud RAN software on a SoftBank AITRAS platform with NVIDIA’s ARC platform and the AITRAS Orchestrator. The accelerated computing platform incorporates an NVIDIA Grace CPU, NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 GPU and NVIDIA ConnectX-8 networking, providing the computing and high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity needed to run commercial RAN workloads on cloud-native infrastructure. The AITRAS Orchestrator will support the orchestration of AI and RAN workloads within the trial environment, while NVIDIA’s programmable accelerated computing platform and NVIDIA CUDA ecosystem provide a software-defined foundation for continued AI-RAN innovation and an evolution path toward AI-native 6G. The trial will also demonstrate how Nokia’s AI-native anyRAN software can operate within the SoftBank AITRAS platform architecture, highlighting deployment flexibility beyond traditional RAN implementations.

As demand for generative, agentic and physical AI applications continues to grow, operators require networks that can efficiently support increasing data volumes while enabling new AI-driven services closer to the end user. By combining Nokia’s AI-native RAN software with NVIDIA accelerated computing, AI-RAN brings radio and AI workloads onto a common platform, helping operators improve infrastructure utilization, accelerate innovation and unlock new revenue opportunities.

“Our planned field trial with Nokia will mark a significant milestone in AI-RAN’s transition from concept to execution,” said Ryuji Wakikawa, Senior Vice President and CTO, SoftBank Corp. “We will integrate Nokia’s AI-native anyRAN into our AITRAS platform as its RAN component, with the AITRAS Orchestrator working in coordination with Nokia’s RAN and MantaRay. We are excited to begin this next phase of validation with Nokia, paving the way for a new era of networks that deliver both connectivity and AI services.”

“Our agreement with SoftBank marks an important step toward the future of AI-native networks,” said Pallavi Mahajan, Chief Technology and AI Officer at Nokia. “By bringing AI and RAN workloads onto common, programmable infrastructure, AI-RAN has the potential to unlock new levels of spectral efficiency while providing the distributed intelligence needed to support physical AI. As the boundaries between network and compute continue to blur, this distributed infrastructure can become a powerful platform for both connectivity and AI. Together with SoftBank and its AITRAS platform, we are laying the foundation for networks that go beyond connectivity to enable real-time AI services and accelerate the evolution toward AI-native 6G.”

The agreement builds on Nokia and SoftBank’s ongoing collaboration in AI-RAN, supported by NVIDIA’s accelerated computing node. The planned field trial will bring together Nokia’s AI-native RAN software with SoftBank’s AITRAS platform including the AITRAS Orchestrator to test AI-RAN under commercial traffic conditions. The collaboration will explore how AI and RAN workloads can be orchestrated on a common platform while preserving carrier-grade RAN operational requirements. Integration between Nokia MantaRay and the AITRAS Orchestrator will help enable coordinated management of AI and RAN resources, creating a foundation for future AI-native network architectures.

The trial will contribute to the broader industry transition toward AI-native network architectures and explore how operators can introduce new capabilities faster while supporting emerging AI applications at the network edge.

The planned trial will also explore AI-RAN’s potential to support richer AI-driven experiences, lower-latency services and new applications powered by real-time intelligence. Future use cases could include physical AI, immersive digital experiences, robotics and autonomous systems that require close interaction between AI and connectivity