Nokia and NVIDIA move AI-RAN toward live networks and launch agentic AI platform

AI inside the 5G signal chain

According to Nokia, the company and NVIDIA are now applying AI within the 5G signal-processing chain, including channel estimation, beamforming, multi-user MIMO pairing and scheduling. Nokia AI-native anyRAN software runs on the NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer and serves as a software-defined foundation for AI-powered radio functions that improve network capacity and performance.

The partnership between the two companies is one year old. It was formed to add NVIDIA-powered, commercial-grade AI-RAN products to Nokia's radio access network portfolio. Nokia describes the aim as giving operators a practical path to improve current 5G and 5G Advanced networks and then evolve to AI-native 6G.

Nokia says its platform rests on three capabilities:

• AI-led spectral efficiency, to extract more capacity from existing spectrum
• Integrated sensing and communications, to help the network understand the physical environment
• Localized inference, to process intelligence close to where data is generated

Operator progress in Europe

Nokia points to activity at four European operators. In Helsinki, Elisa ran voice, mobile data and video analytics at the same time on one AI-RAN platform in its 5G network. Distributed deployment and evaluation of customer use cases and commercial AI-RAN services are expected in 2027.

BT is preparing a live-network trial in Birmingham in 2027. Deutsche Telekom and Nokia are developing AI-based channel estimation. Initial laboratory measurements showed typical uplink throughput improvements of 10, 15%, with greater gains under more complex radio conditions, according to Nokia. The next phase will add further AI spectral-efficiency algorithms and field validation. Nokia stresses this is only one element of the broader AI-RAN opportunity.

Orange plans to progress on testing AI-RAN in both lab and real network conditions.

dApps and a wider hardware ecosystem

Nokia is also extending the platform with distributed applications, or dApps, that run at the network edge. Its E3 interface gives these applications real-time access to RAN data, which Nokia says turns the radio network into a programmable platform for sensing and localized intelligence.

DeepSig is developing spectrum-sensing software that uses existing radio infrastructure to identify RF threats, interference and rogue transmitters. ZaiNar is integrating its positioning software with Nokia Cloud AI-RAN to provide network-based location capabilities without changes to connected devices or radio hardware.

On the infrastructure side, Dell Technologies, Quanta Cloud Technology and Supermicro support flexible NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer configurations for distributed and centralized deployments running Nokia 5G anyRAN software alongside AI inference. Red Hat is bringing AI-RAN technologies onto a common cloud-native platform with Red Hat OpenShift. At NVIDIA GTC Berlin, Nokia is demonstrating integrated sensing and communications.

Sovereign agentic AI for network autonomy

Nokia and NVIDIA are also integrating NVIDIA AI Enterprise software and NVIDIA Nemotron models and libraries into Nokia's agentic platform. Operators can build, evaluate, deploy and operate telco-specific agents across radio, core, transport and cloud networks. Nokia supplies the network intelligence, operational context and governance for agents to take controlled action.

The company says glass-box autonomy keeps operators in oversight, while agentic guardrails govern how actions are tested and executed. The architecture supports on-premises, cloud and hybrid deployments, so operators control where operational data, models and policies reside. Etisalat UAE, MEO and Airtel are working with Nokia to identify advanced use cases and integration timelines.

What it means for operators

For operators, the announcement positions AI-RAN as something that can be added to existing 5G networks rather than a technology reserved for 6G. Most commercial milestones are still ahead: Elisa's distributed deployment and BT's trial are both expected in 2027, and Deutsche Telekom's figures come from laboratory measurements, not live networks.

Nokia will also show IP and optical products at GTC, including 800G coherent pluggables, to link distributed AI infrastructure across data center locations.