SK Telecom (SKT) announced on October 14 that it received the 'Most Innovative 5G Communication Service' award at the Network X event held in Vienna, Austria, recognizing its competitive edge in artificial intelligence transformation (AX) technology for communication networks.
The award was given for SKT's 'AI-RAN Based Autonomous Vehicle Movement (AVM) Technology.'
Network X is an international event in the fixed and mobile communication network sector organized by Informa, a global ICT media and research company.
SKT's AI-RAN technology was acknowledged for implementing a new type of communication service that directly perceives and controls vehicles in the field.
AI-RAN is a next-generation technology that provides communication and AI services on a single network infrastructure. SKT developed and demonstrated AI-RAN base stations to ensure stable communication quality even while processing AI services.
AVM is a service that intelligently manages the transportation and alignment of vehicles based on a network. LiDAR sensors installed on-site send point cloud data, which the AI-RAN base station uses to create a digital twin in real-time, calculate collision-free routes, and issue driving commands to the vehicles.
As a result, even standard vehicles without autonomous driving capabilities can be transported autonomously by installing the necessary modules and programs.
The service demonstration was conducted through an autonomous valet parking trial at an actual parking facility, where the entire process—from sensor data collection to AI decision-making and driving command delivery—was completed within the required time for controlling unmanned vehicles.
This demonstration confirmed the potential to expand the automation range, previously limited to the latest autonomous vehicles, to include standard vehicles and robots. Once commercialized, this technology will enable telecom companies to provide management services for multiple vehicles based on existing 5G infrastructure, potentially offering new subscription-based revenue models depending on scale.
SKT plans to apply this technology to complete vehicle factories through a national project focused on creating a hyper AI network by 2027 and will conduct real-world demonstrations in industrial settings. The company aims to expand its application to large logistics sites such as ports and airports, evolving alongside the transition to 5G standalone mode (SA) and 6G, ultimately developing AI-RAN-based physical AI services.
Ryu Tak-ki, head of SKT's network technology division, stated, "We will enhance AI-RAN-based physical AI services and accelerate the evolution toward autonomous networks to provide new value to customers and industrial sites."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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