Nvidia has announced a new research platform that will help organizations accelerate the development of 6G technologies, the next generation of wireless technology.
The Nvidia Research Cloud platform will provide researchers with a “complete suite to advance AI for use in radio access network (RAN) technology,” according to the announcement.
The platform will allow customers to simulate cloud communication environments to investigate 6G, which is expected to reach commercial viability closer to 2030.
Nvidia's new platform has partners and early adopters such as Ansys, Arm, ETH Zurich, Fujitsu, Keysight, Nokia, Northeastern University, Rohde & Schwarz, Samsung, SoftBank Corp and Viavi.
It will consist of three “building blocks,” Nvidia Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin for 6G, Aerial CUDA-Accelerated RAN, and Sionna Neural Radio Framework.
Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin for 6G is a reference application that enables physically accurate simulations of 6G systems of various sizes, from a single tower to an entire city.
Researchers will be able to simulate and build base station algorithms using site-specific data and train models in real time to increase transmission efficiency.
Testing and simulation will be key on the path to the next generation of wireless technology. As such, engineering software company Ansys announced that it would integrate its Perceive EM solver into the Omniverse ecosystem.
Nvidia's CUDA Accelerated Aerial RAN refers to a complete software-based RAN stack that offers researchers the freedom to customize, program and test 6G networks in real time.
Sionna Neural Network Framework integrates popular frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow, allowing users to leverage Nvidia GPUs to generate and capture data, as well as train AI and ML models at scale.
Included in this package is Sionna, described by Nvidia as “the leading link-level research tool for AI/ML-based wireless simulations.”
Nvidia wants to promote the “next leap” in wireless communications
Nvidia boasted that its 6G Research Cloud platform is capable of bringing these tools together to help telcos unlock the full potential of 6G.
Charlie Zang, senior vice president of Samsung Research America, said the intersection of AI and 6G has the potential to be transformative and could reimagine digital communication.
“The future convergence of 6G and AI holds the promise of a transformative technology landscape,” he explained.
“This will bring seamless connectivity and intelligent systems that will redefine our interactions with the digital world, ushering in an era of unparalleled innovation and connectivity.”
Nvidia senior vice president of telecommunications Ronnie Vasishta said access to AI, a full software-based RAN reference stack and digital twin technology will be key to achieving the transmission efficiencies needed for the jump to 6G.
“The massive increase in connected devices and a host of new applications in 6G will require a huge leap in wireless spectral efficiency in radio communications… The key to achieving this will be the use of AI, a RAN reference stack “comprehensive software-defined and upcoming next-generation digital twin technology.”
