Nokia Charts the Path to 6G with anyRAN

Why It Matters

The move formalizes an industry shift to AI-native, GPU-accelerated RAN stacks and multi-vendor ecosystems, promising faster innovation, better performance and greater supply‑chain resilience while setting technical expectations for 6G. This will reshape operator procurement, network operations and the competitive landscape for RAN suppliers.

Summary

At MWC26 Nokia positioned its anyRAN initiative as a global blueprint for a software-defined, disaggregated and AI-native RAN, designed to run the same RAN software across cloud and purpose-built platforms. Nokia highlighted a collaboration with NVIDIA around the Aerial RAN compute platform to leverage GPU inferencing for advanced beamforming, channel estimation and other AI-driven radio functions. Wind River (Win River) and other ecosystem partners are being integrated to provide hardened infrastructure, lifecycle automation and CPU/GPU orchestration. Nokia said this architecture accelerates new service delivery, improves spectral efficiency and lays groundwork for 6G.

Original Description

At MWC26, Aji Ed, VP and head of cloud RAN and SMO at Nokia, and Paul Miller, CTO at Wind River, discuss Nokia’s anyRAN strategy, a global virtualised architecture blueprint for network disaggregation powered by AI and cloud technologies, and the road to 6G.

Featuring:

- Aji Ed, VP, Head of AI RAN, Cloud RAN and SMO, Nokia

- Paul Miller, CTO, Wind River

Chapters:

0:00 - 0:36 - Introductions

0:36 - 2:14 - What drives the shift toward disaggregation and why are cloud and AI RAN so central to Nokia's future?

2:14 - 5:08 - What makes Nokia's AI RAN strategy unique and accelerate new service delivery?

5:08 - 6:10 - What made Wind River the right partner for this blueprint?

6:10 - 8:02 - How critical is ecosystem maturity to deployment decisions and how do you see the partner landscape evolving in 2026?

8:02 - 10:19 - What's next for AI-native networks and why is selecting a partner so vital?

10:19 - 10:35 - Thank you and goodbye

Recorded March 2026

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