South Korea's National Information Society Agency (NIA) is working with mobile operators, manufacturers and AI companies to build a Hyper AI pilot network based on 5G standalone mode (SA) and AI-RAN technology. SK Telecom and KT will each form a consortium to build an AI-based next-generation communications network at industrial sites and demonstrate physical AI services using robots.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the NIA held a launch briefing on Monday for the Hyper AI Network Foundation Project.

The Hyper AI Network is a next-generation network that uses AI to operate communications networks intelligently and provides ultra-low latency and high-capacity communications required for physical AI services. The project will be 추진된다 under national policy tasks to build an AI highway to become one of three major AI powers and under the Republic of Korea AI Action Plan. It aims to verify 5G SA and AI-RAN technology at industrial sites and lay the groundwork to commercialise physical AI services.

Total project funding is 17.2 billion won. The NIA selected two consortia led separately by SKT and KT. The SKT consortium has a budget of 8 billion won and the KT consortium 9.2 billion won.

Working with the consortia, the NIA plans to compare and verify upload speeds, latency, latency variation and autonomy against existing networks by using communications equipment from multiple manufacturers and computing resources such as central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs).

At industrial sites where the pilot network is built, the project will demonstrate AI-based welding, painting and patrol robots and unmanned autonomous transfer services. It will verify robots' real-time perception, judgement and control capabilities and multi-robot collaboration performance in high-risk, high-difficulty work environments, and expand the scope of demonstrations to humanoids after 2027.

◆SKT to demonstrate Hyper AI pilot network based on AI-RAN

SKT will take charge of a task to build an autonomous Hyper AI pilot network based on AI-RAN and demonstrate services. SK Incheon Petrochem and KG Mobility will participate as demand organisations, and HFR, Seoul Robotics, Intellivix, Clebi, Ericsson-LG and others will join the consortium.

SKT will build AI-RAN equipment from four manufacturers in one project - Samsung Electronics, HFR, Ericsson and Nokia - and compare performance. It will also vary the configuration of computing resources such as CPUs and GPUs, as well as the placement structure of AI servers and data transmission devices, to verify network implementation methods suited to physical AI services.

At SK Incheon Petrochem, a quadruped patrol robot will move through hazardous areas, transmit high-definition video in real time, and AI-RAN will analyse the video to detect risks in an industrial safety service demonstration. At KG Mobility, AI-RAN will process lidar sensor data installed on site to build a digital twin and verify an unmanned autonomous transfer service that issues remote driving commands to vehicles.

The consortium will also pursue a demonstration of a low-power mode for humanoids that distributes complex AI computation from robots to base stations to reduce devices' computing burden and battery consumption.

◆KT to build customised AI wireless network for industrial sites, demonstrate robots at shipyard

KT, together with Samsung Electronics and HD Hyundai Samho, will take charge of building a customised AI wireless network for industrial sites and demonstrating applied services. Based on its experience converting to a commercial 5G SA network, it plans to build an autonomous operations network in which AI analyses and controls the communications network in real time.

It will develop an AI Core Orchestrator that analyses network data to detect failures and take action, and link the network data analytics function (NWDAF) with AI to train the core network on communications patterns and performance data.

At HD Hyundai Samho's shipyard, it will demonstrate AI welding robots and AI painting robots based on ultra-low latency and high-capacity communications. It will verify whether AI can improve safety and productivity in high-risk work by analysing and controlling robot and facility data in real time. It will also demonstrate autonomous operations robots that check facility status and respond at communications switching centres.

KT plans to verify three types of physical AI services: welding, painting and operations at communications switching centres. The consortium includes Samsung Electronics and HD Hyundai Samho, as well as Solid, Ariel Networks, Woorinet and Yonsei University.

At KT's Umyeon-dong research and development centre, it will build a multi-vendor testbed to jointly verify equipment from Samsung Electronics and South Korean small and medium-sized companies. It will jointly develop base station power-saving technology and RedCap, a low-power 5G device technology, and support overseas expansion by South Korean communications equipment companies.

Jong-sik Lee (이종식), head of KT's Future Network Lab, said it would identify core technologies for the 6G era based on top-level domestic network operation capabilities, and stressed it would lead the spread of the Hyper AI ecosystem to boost the competitiveness of the national communications equipment industry.