Kristen Smith 
NVIDIA has partnered with U.S. technology and telecom companies, namely Booz Allen Hamilton, Cisco, MITRE, ODC and T-Mobile, to develop an AI-native wireless stack for 6G, designed to handle the exponential growth in AI-powered communications and devices.
“6G is being built from the ground up with AI at its core — unlocking extreme spectral efficiency, massive connectivity and breakthrough applications,” said Ronnie Vasishta, senior vice president of telecom at NVIDIA. “Working with industry leaders, we’ve created an AI-native wireless stack with advanced features to ensure that America will play an instrumental role in the journey to 6G.”
What Makes the New AI-RAN Architecture Significant?
According to NVIDIA, the new Artificial Intelligence-Radio Access Network, built on the NVIDIA AI Aerial platform, is the first all-American AI-native wireless stack for 6G. The system integrates artificial intelligence across hardware, software and architecture to create highly efficient, adaptive and secure next-generation wireless networks.
The AI-RAN architecture was developed under the AI-WIN initiative at NVIDIA’s campus in Santa Clara, California, where the team completed the full AI-native wireless stack and conducted the first user-to-user phone call over the network.
The platform combines NVIDIA AI Aerial software with ODC’s 5G RAN software, Cisco’s 5G core software and specialized 6G applications from MITRE and Booz Allen. NVIDIA said its AI Aerial software libraries enable early 6G applications, while new AI and neural network model integrations enhance performance and efficiency.
The collaboration with Booz Allen and MITRE produced two key 6G applications: a multimodal sensing system that merges camera vision with radio-frequency data to track objects even in low visibility, and an AI-powered spectrum management tool that dynamically allocates wireless frequencies in real time.
“Within wireless networks, there is a huge amount of data that’s available,” said Chris Christou, senior vice president of Edge/NextG at Booz Allen. “So you’re not only communicating, you’re also sensing, leveraging that same data. This all doesn’t happen without AI.”
