South Korea's National Information Society Agency (NIA) and the Ministry of Science and ICT will use university campuses to launch an AI-RAN pilot that combines AI and network technology.

NIA and the ministry said on Oct. 2 they held a launch ceremony for the 'K-AI Network Competitiveness Enhancement' project at Seoul National University on Oct. 1.

The flagship task, a 'campus AI network pilot', will receive 2.2 billion won in government funding this year. Newgens will lead the project, with Seoul National University, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Yonsei University and HFR taking part, and it will run through December 2027.

The consortium will build AI-RAN testbeds at 3 university campuses based on Korean-made equipment and solutions. The universities will be connected via the Korea Research Environment Open Network (KOREN) to verify RAN performance and interoperability and to test physical AI, robot services and other applications.

Seoul National University will test an AI hologram-based integrated campus guidance service. KAIST will test mobility and delivery services based on autonomous driving robots. Yonsei University will test indoor autonomous patrol and companion guidance services using a multimodal quadruped robot.

NIA and Seoul National University's National Institute for Robotics Research also proclaimed an 'AI-RAN x Physical AI cooperation vision' on the day. The government plans to use the project to secure test models for 'AI-for-RAN', which uses AI to optimise network performance, and 'AI-on-RAN', which implements AI services on networks.

NIA President Hyeong-cheol Kim (김형철) said, "We will link universities' research capabilities with industry technology capabilities to enhance the competitiveness of Korean AI-RAN, and support the spread of pilot results accumulated on campuses across industry and into overseas markets."