Oki Electric Industry, Nagoya University and Rakuten Mobile recently announced the launch of research and development into autonomous networks to enable autonomous mobile services.
The organizations will carry out R&D into autonomous network key technologies that allow networks to autonomously respond to communications service requests and coordinate various services while operating stably (coordinated type autonomous networks).
"Beyond 5G" refers to the next generation of communications standards to follow 5G, which is expected to be deployed after 2030. In Beyond 5G, communications technology will be utilized in every aspect of life. As a result, network traffic is expected to increase dramatically and demands for networks are expected to diversify. To support the increasing traffic and new demands, it will become necessary for networks to be able to respond autonomously without human intervention.
Autonomous networks are mobile networks that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) that can manage networks in the same way as human engineers do into the network systems. This will enable networks to manage all operations independently and autonomously respond to diversifying network demands.
In the R&D, OKI, Nagoya University and Rakuten Mobile aim to build the fundamental technologies and applications for autonomous networks to further automate network operations. The three organizations will develop an autonomous mobile robot that can move while adapting to its surrounding environment through linkage to autonomous network foundational technologies. The organizations also aim to create efficient video streaming and IoT services using the autonomous mobile robot.
In the R&D, the organizations will develop coordinated type autonomous network key technologies which will be linked to autonomous mobile robots with the aim of creating efficient video streaming and IoT services. When streaming video content, the content recorded by the autonomous mobile robot will be stored and delivered to other devices and servers through efficient two-way content streaming.
Through the R&D, OKI, Nagoya University and Rakuten Mobile aim to create new user experiences using autonomous networks and autonomous mobile robots and contribute to the development of communications technologies necessary for increasing Japan's international competitiveness and the realization of new services for Beyond 5G.
