Samsung Electronics announced that it is participating in the AI-RAN Alliance as a founding member, with the goal of promoting 6G innovation by combining AI technology and wireless communication technology. Officially launched at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2024 today, the AI-RAN Alliance is an organization aimed at revitalizing the convergence of AI and wireless communication and leading technology innovation through cooperation with related companies. A total of eleven organizations—including Samsung, Arm, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, NVIDIA, SoftBank and Northeastern University—are participating as founding members. This new alliance will collaborate on the development of innovative new technologies, as well as the application of these technologies to commercial products in preparation for the upcoming 6G era.

"Emerging services in the 6G era will revolutionize the way people interact with technology, and AI will be an integral part of this trend," said Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President at Samsung Research America. "The AI-RAN Alliance will foster collaboration, drive innovation and usher in a new era of transformation around AI and 6G networks. We believe this coalition will create new value for end users and operators through AI-based use cases and innovations."The AI-RAN Alliance aims to combine AI and wireless communication technologies for application in various fields, create an ecosystem, and ultimately expand opportunities for new businesses. To this end, it has established three working groups that carry out technical research: AI for RAN, AI and RAN, and AI on RAN. AI for RAN will focus on technology utilizing AI/ML2 to improve spectrum, cost and energy efficiency of RAN. AI and RAN will focus on AI and radio network convergence technology for both efficient resource management and maximizing infrastructure utilization. AI on RAN will focus on discovering new AI applications and services in wireless networks. The results of these activities—such as technical reports and white papers—are expected to greatly contribute to the standardization and commercialization of 6G in the future. This includes the discovery of new services, technical requirements and specifications.

Samsung is planning to use this alliance activity to lead technological convergence and service innovation that combines AI with wireless communication technology. The company is also committed to leading the 6G ecosystem with its industry-leading position in AI and wireless communication solutions, such as semiconductors, AI hardware and software technologies, wireless communication systems and terminals.

Samsung Research initially spearheaded the development of 6G technologies by establishing the Advanced Communications Research Center (ACRC) in May 2019. Since that time, Samsung Research has established itself as an early leader of 6G research through the publication of the 6G white paper and the 6G spectrum white paper in July 2020 and May 2022, respectively. In May 2022, Samsung hosted the inaugural Samsung 6G Forum, demonstrating its leadership in next-generation communication research and development.

Samsung Research has been continuously evolving its 6G technology strategies to adapt to the changing telecom industry landscape. In particular, as related to the AI-RAN Alliance, Samsung Research envisions AI-Native to be a key attribute of future 6G networks. Samsung Research believe with AI being a natural part of the 6G system functionality, the future network will have significantly improved capacity and coverage, and become fully automated and highly energy-efficient. Going forward, Samsung Research will continue to lead innovations with the goal of the successful launch and commercialization of next-generation communication systems in the future.