Summer 2026 OAI Workshop –
Open Source in the times of AI Native Networks
We are pleased to announce the Summer 2026 OAI Workshop – Open Source in the times of AI Native Networks, to be held from June 22–23, 2026, in Porto, Portugal. The event will be hosted by the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) and held at the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP).
This workshop is organized in collaboration with our Associate Member, Allbesmart.
This workshop presents an opportunity to pause and reflect on the role of open source at the time of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in cellular wireless.
OpenAirInterface (OAI) believes that open source creates value through collaboration and embracing the flexibility required to support a wide range of users and use cases. Its role in the emerging 6G systems is to build reference designs in sync with, and in support of, the ongoing standardization in 3GPP. OAI encourages building emulation tools for large-scale experimentation at a time when 6G/AI engines desperately need data for training as well as validation.
This edition of the OAI workshop will explore where open source creates value—and where it does not.
The workshop will bring together stakeholders from governments, academia, and industry to explore these questions and showcase how the community is advancing open, interoperable, and high-performance cellular networks.
The event is intended for those working with OAI and its community—whether developing features, integrating components, running experiments, or deploying solutions—as well as for those looking to engage more deeply with the platform. It also welcomes strategic thinkers with a vision for open source in the 5G/6G industry.
Workshop sponsors
Keynote speakers
Rob Soni
Rob Soni – AT&T: Rob Soni leads the RAN Technology team within AT&T’s Network CTO organization, overseeing the architecture and technical strategy for RAN hardware and software, including radios, antennas, and baseband systems. He also drives network management strategy, certification, and innovation across AT&T’s mobility RAN and Core networks. In addition, Rob serves as Chairman of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Chair of the Full Member Group of the ATIS Next G Alliance.
Before joining AT&T, Rob held leadership and technical roles at VMware, Nokia Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, and Lucent, with a strong focus on cloud RAN and 5G technologies. Across his career, he has led teams delivering innovations for global 3G, 4G, and 5G networks that improved performance, resiliency, energy efficiency, and cost optimization.
Rob holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Cincinnati.
Tommaso Melodia
Tommaso Melodia – Northeastern University: Tommaso Melodia is the William Lincoln Smith Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, and the Founding Director of the Institute for Intelligent Networked Systems (INSI), a transatlantic research center spanning Boston, Burlington (MA), and London with over 200 members. He directs Open6G, a federal-industry-university cooperative R&D center for next-generation open, programmable, and AI-powered 6G systems, and served as Director of Research for the NSF PAWR Program, a $100M+ national initiative that deployed city-scale wireless testbeds across the United States. He leads Colosseum — the world’s largest wireless network emulator — serving researchers worldwide. Prof. Melodia is a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE, and the National Academy of Inventors, and a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award. He has received numerous best paper awards, including at IEEE INFOCOM and IEEE Globecom. He has authored over 370 peer-reviewed publications, holds 40+ patents, and is the co-founder of multiple technology spinoffs. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier Computer Networks, a co-founder of the AI-RAN Alliance and the 6G Symposium, a board member of the OpenAirInterface Software Alliance, and a member of the research council of the ATIS Next G Alliance. He served as TPC Chair for IEEE INFOCOM and General Chair for ACM MobiHoc, among others. His research has been extensively funded by U.S. government agencies and industry partners.
Agenda
Day 1 (2026/06/22):
| Time Slot | Speaker(s) | Affiliation | Title |
| 08:30 – 9:00 | REGISTRATION & COFFEE | ||
| 09:00 – 09:15 | Ana Aguiar Raymond Knopp | FEUP OpenAirInterface | Welcome to the workshop |
| 09:15 – 09:45 | Rob Soni | AT&T | Evolution or Revolution – Cloud, AI, and New Spectrum in the 5G/6G Era and the Role of Open Source in the Innovation Pipeline |
| 09:45 – 10:00 | Xurxo Remuiñán Suárez | DG CONNECT European Commission | Activities of DG CONNECT in shaping Europe’s Digital Present and Future |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Tommaso Melodia | Northeastern University | Open 6G: Toward Self-Synthesizing Autonomous NextG Networks |
| 11:00 – 12:00 | Robert Soni Jimmy Ahlberg Tommaso Melodia Christian Gallard | AT&T Ericsson Northeastern University Orange | Panel: Recent and Major Developments in Open Source 5G/6G Cellular Wireless. Earthshaking? Moderator: Raymond Knopp – OpenAirInterface |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 13:00 – 13:20 | Martin Kasparick | airpuls GmbH | Enabling TSN and Industrial Traffic with OpenAirInterface |
| 13:20 – 13:40 | Tiago Alves | Allbesmart | OAIBOX AI-RAN: Open-source AI native 6G test network |
| 13:40 – 14:00 | Dr. Devanshu Anand | Dublin City University | AI-Native End-to-End 5G/6G with OAI: Realizing Intelligent O-RAN xApps and Programmable Core Networks |
| 14:00 – 14:20 | Stefan Spettel | Phine.tech | 5G APIs: The Crucial Prerequisite for AI-Enhanced 6G Use Cases |
| 14:20 – 14:50 | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 14:50 – 15:10 | Turker Yilmaz | 6GSpaceLab SnT of the University of Luxembourg | Space-Ready OAI 5G NTN Stack: 6GSpaceLab/SnT’s Roadmap and Contributions |
| 15:10 – 15:25 | Thomas Schlichter | Fraunhofer IIS | OAI 5G NR NTN – Current State and Roadmap |
| 15:25 – 15:45 | Sebastian Cammerer | NVIDIA | Agentic AI for Wireless Research |
| 15:45 – 16:05 | Harsha Master | NXP | 6G for All: NXP Programmable Baseband and SDR Architectures for Next-Gen Development |
| 16:05 – 16:25 | Sagar Arora Robert Schmidt | OpenAirInterface | Introduction to Duranta |
| 16:25 – 18:00 | DEMO VISITS | ||
| 16:25 – 18:00 | Filipe Teixeira | INESC TEC & FEUP | Visit to the CONVERGE lab – testing the convergence between wireless communications and computer vision with OAI |
| Paulo Marques Jérôme Härri/Jin Yan Filipe Peixoto Eisaku Sato Karolis Kiela Xin Zhe Khooi Daniele Pugliese Gabriele Gemmi Karim Boutiba Rakesh Mundlamuri Shubhika Garg | Allbesmart & IPCB EURECOM IT-Porto & Allbesmart Kozo Keikaku Engineering Inc. Lime Microsystems National University of Singapore Politecnico di Bari/NEU Northeastern University OpenAirInterface OpenAirInterface OpenAirInterface | OAIBOX AI-RAN with NVIDIA DGX Spark 5G NR SL – Multi-UE Mesh Network NR-U WiFi Coexistence with Dynamic PRB Blocklist in OpenAirInterface Development of an OAI-based Multi-Cell Simulation Platform by Physical Layer Abstraction OAI 5G End-to-End Demo with LimeSDR Micro based on NXP LA9310 – Host Setup and SDR Configuration ProtO-RU: An O-RAN Split-7.2 Radio Unit using SDRs Demonstrating O-RAN Driven Topology Optimization for IAB and WAB Networks mMIMO O-RUs with OpenAirInterface Single Cell Multi UE with Keysight RUSIM 5G Uplink MU-MIMO with PUSH DMRS using OpenAirInterface O1 meets Kafka: Cloud-native Telemetry on O-Cloud | |
| 19:00 | PORTUGESE TRADITIONAL GALA DINNER, CAVE VISIT & FADO |
Day 2 (2026/06/23):
| Time Slot | Speaker(s) | Affiliation | Title |
| 08:30 – 9:00 | WELCOME COFFEE | ||
| 09:00 – 10:00 | Sridhar Rao Sebastian Cammerer Hanen Garcia Doug Knisely | Linux Foundation NVIDIA Red Hat Qualcomm | Panel: AI-Native Networks: Is Open Source Ready—and What’s Still Missing? Moderator: Paulo Marques – Allbesmart |
| 10:00 – 10:20 | Ana Aguiar | FEUP | 5G NR Unlicensed using OAI |
| 10:20 – 10:50 | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 10:50 – 11:10 | Matt Pennybacker | DeepSig | Building an Open AI-RAN Platform: OCUDU gNB Progress and OAI UE Alignment |
| 11:10 – 11:25 | Raymond Knopp | OpenAirInterface | Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) Vision at OpenAirInterface |
| 11:25 – 11:40 | Bharat Agarwal | NI | From O-RU to the Sky: ProtO-RU, OAI, and NTN |
| 11:40 – 12:00 | Karolis Kiela | Lime Microsystems | OAI 5G with LimeSDR Micro based on NXP LA9310 – Current State and Roadmap |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 13:00 – 13:20 | Utku Uçak | Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute | Uplink Multi-User MIMO with SRS Channel Estimates in OAI |
| 13:20 – 13:40 | Hao-Yun Hsu | Siemens AG | Evaluation of Methods for Delay Violation Probability Computing in Industrial URLLC |
| 13:40 – 14:00 | Jérôme Härri | EURECOM | OAI UE Sidelink Intelligence – Extending OAI UE with SL-NAS Functions |
| 14:00 – 14:20 | Tetsuya Iye | Kozo Keikaku Engineering Inc. | OAI-Based Wireless Digital Twin with SDR Channel Emulator |
| 14:20 – 14:40 | Rajeev Gangula | Northeastern University | IsaacSim5G: A Virtual Experimentation Platform for 5G-Connected Robotics |
| 14:40 – 15:00 | Sandrine Legrand Andrea Forte | Microamp Solutions | Extending 5G/6G Use Cases with mmWave: ISAC, NTN, and Beyond |
| 15:00 | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 15:00 – 17:00 | DEMO VISITS | ||
| 15:00 – 17:00 | Filipe Teixeira | INESC TEC & FEUP | Visit to the CONVERGE lab – testing the convergence between wireless communications and computer vision with OAI |
| Luís Pereira Florian Kaltenberger Michael Gundall Pedram Johari Karim Boutiba Sagar Arora Jaroslava Fiedlerova Calvin Peyron Stefan Spettel Jérôme Peraldi | Allbesmart EURECOM DFKI Northeastern University OpenAirInterface OpenAirInterface OpenAirInterface Open Cells Project Phine.tech Sequans | OAIBOX 5G LAB KIT 5G NR Positioning with OpenAirInterface in a Digital Twin Demonstrating High-Precision Wireless Time Synchronization Using OAI and the 6G4ALL SDR Platform LCHEM: An Open Source FPGA-based Channel Emulator FR1/FR2 NR-DC, dynamic beamforming, and RIS integration in OAI TBD Introducing OAI Soft O-RU OpenAirInterface, o1-adapter, O-RAN-SC/OAM integration Automated QoD for Robotics: Integrating ROS2, CAMARA APIs, and OAI via RoboSim5G 3GPP 36523 and 38523 Protocol Stack Testing: From Simulation to Hardware Testing. |
Gala dinner
A Gala dinner will be organized on June 22 at the Kopke Group venue in Porto. The evening will include a traditional Portuguese meal, a guided visit to the historic wine cellars, and a live Fado performance.
This event offers an opportunity to meet and interact with other workshop participants in an informal setting, while discovering a part of Porto’s cultural heritage.
Seats are limited.
Participants are encouraged to book in advance.
Accommodation & access
Accommodation: Here are recommended hotels in Porto, located either in the city center (with direct metro access to FEUP) or near the university campus.
Hotel discounts/promo codes:
A limited number of discounted rooms are available for workshop participants. Availability is limited, and hotels may fill quickly due to the São João festivities in Porto (night of June 23rd and June 24th).
- Ibis Porto São João: discounted booking available via this link (book as soon as possible)
- Eurostars hotels: use promo code OAI2026 on eurostarshotels.com for a 15% discount, subject to limited availability (Eurostars Oporto, Eurostars Porto Centro, Dorma Almada Porto)
Access: The workshop will take place at Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), located in the Asprela university campus (north of Porto, near Hospital de São João).
Once on campus, no special access is required.
✈️ From Porto Airport (Francisco Sá Carneiro)
- By metro (recommended):
- Take Metro Line E (purple) from the airport (direction Estádio do Dragão).
- Change at Trindade station to Line D (yellow) (direction Hospital de São João).
- Exit at IPO or Hospital de São João station.
Walk ~5–10 minutes to FEUP.
- Total travel time: ~30–40 minutes.
- Alternative options:
Taxi/ride-hailing: ~15–20 minutes depending on traffic
🚇 From Porto City Center
- By metro:
From central stations (São Bento, Aliados, or Trindade), take Line D (yellow) toward Hospital de São João. - Exit at IPO or Hospital de São João.
Walk ~5–10 minutes to FEUP.
🚗 By Car
- FEUP is located next to Hospital de São João (a major landmark).
- Follow signs toward “Hospital de São João / Polo Universitário”.
- Access is mainly via Rua Dr. Roberto Frias.