
Summer 2025 Workshop: The OAI Path to AI-Driven 6G
The 2025 OpenAirInterface Summer Workshop was successfully held on May 21–22 at Ericsson’s headquarters in Kista, Sweden. This event marked a significant milestone, bringing together OAI experts, developers, researchers, and members of the broader OAI community to explore how OAI can support the development of 6G and AI-driven networks.
In recent months, the OAI leadership and team have actively engaged with the 6G and AI research communities. Many researchers are already leveraging OAI in various ways, and this workshop offered a valuable opportunity for direct consultation with these communities. The goal was to better understand how leading open-source projects such as OpenAirInterface can evolve to meet the demands of next-generation networks.
Discussions focused on defining the technical capabilities required for an AI-native 6G reference implementation—an essential step in shaping OAI’s roadmap and strengthening its role as a key enabler of future wireless technologies. The event featured presentations, technical exchanges, and demos to guide OAI’s development in this changing landscape.
We thank Ericsson for generously hosting the OAI community in one of the world’s most iconic centers of cellular innovation and for contributing to the success of this important gathering.
Keynote speakers

Dag Lindbo
ERICSSON
Dag Lindbo is Head of AI and Emerging Technologies in Business Area Networks at Ericsson, with a remit covering embedded and generative AI, SW technology, and live network analytics on a global scale. He was previously SW Lead for 5G radio network prototypes, did a healthcare analytics startup as CTO, and has held various engineering and research roles in Ericsson.

Janne Peisa
ERICSSON
Janne is currently the Head of Connectivity Networks Standards in Ericsson Group Function Technology, responsible for network-related standardization in forums like 3GPP and O-RAN Alliance. He is also responsible for 6G industry initiatives. Janne has been working at Ericsson in the research and development of 3G, 4G, 5G, and 6G systems since 1998, and has previously coordinated Ericsson’s radio-access network standardization activities in 3GPP and led Ericsson research programs for 5G and beyond. In 2001, he received the Ericsson Inventor of the Year award. He has authored several publications and patents and holds an M.SC. and a Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Jimmy Ahlberg
ERICSSON
Jimmy Ahlberg is a Director at the Ericsson Open Source Program Office. He has, over the past ten years, held various positions related to IP, Standards, and Open Source within Ericsson. Over the past few years, he has been heavily engaged in the evolving landscape, with Open Source and Open Standards increasingly intersecting. As such, OAI is a clear example of a very successful project demonstrating how these ecosystems can not only co-exist but also nurture and enhance one another. In addition to his OSA engagement, Jimmy is the Chairperson of the OpenChain Project. He is also a frequent guest lecturer on topics such as Open Source, Open Standards, and patent commercialization at Berkeley Haas School of Business, the University of California, the University of Gothenburg, Chalmers University, and the Faculty of Law at Lund University.

Issam Toufik
ETSI
Dr. Issam Toufik is the CTO of ETSI and Head of the 3GPP Mobile Competence Centre (MCC). He has more than 20 years of experience in the mobile communications sector, 14 of which have been within ETSI and 3GPP. He was active for more than a decade in the 3GPP Radio Access Network (RAN) groups. As CTO of ETSI, he is responsible for all operational aspects of ETSI’s standards development activities. He is also responsible for the operations of the 3GPP Project Coordination Group and heads 3GPP’s Mobile Competence Centre (MCC), an international team of 22 experts that provides comprehensive support to the project.

Tommaso Melodia
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
Tommaso Melodia is the William L. Smith Professor at Northeastern University and Founding Director of the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things. He is also the Director of Research for the PAWR Project Office. He earned his Laurea from the University of Rome – La Sapienza and his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech. An IEEE Fellow and ACM Distinguished Member, he has received the NSF CAREER and several best paper awards, including IEEE Infocom 2022. Prof. Melodia is editor-in-chief of Computer Networks, co-founder of the 6G Symposium, and has held key roles at IEEE Infocom and ACM MobiHoc. He has published 300+ papers, holds 30+ patents, co-founded startups, and serves on the boards of the OpenAirInterface Software Alliance and the ATIS NextG Alliance research council. His research is widely funded by the U.S. government and industry.

Doug Knisely
Qualcomm
Douglas Knisely is Senior Director of Technical Standards at Qualcomm, where he leads efforts in Open RAN advancement and open-source software policy within standards organizations. He plays a key role in aligning 5G RAN, Core Network, and Open RAN software stacks across industry bodies. Douglas serves on the advisory board of OpenAirInterface and co-chairs the O-RAN Alliance Software Development Focus Group. He is also a board member and active contributor to the WInnForum. With a deep background in cellular standards, he has led major initiatives in 3GPP, 3GPP2, and other forums, including foundational work on Femtocell and Small Cell standards and MAC protocols for cdma2000. Earlier in his career, he managed the architecture and development of early multiprocessor computing systems and communication protocols.

Ian Wong
VIAVI
Dr. Ian C. Wong is the Director of RF and Wireless Architecture at VIAVI Solutions, leading technology strategy, architecture, and standards. He co-chairs the O-RAN Alliance’s Test and Integration Focus Group and represents VIAVI in the NextG Alliance. He also leads VIAVI’s VALOR project, awarded $21.7M by the NTIA Innovation Fund. Previously, he was Section Manager of Wireless Systems R&D at NI, leading 5G test system development and 3GPP strategy, and a standards engineer at Freescale Semiconductor. A senior IEEE member, he served as Director of Industry Communities (2016–2019) and Industry Program Chair for IEEE GlobeCom 2014. Dr. Wong is the lead editor of Open RAN: The Definitive Guide (2023), co-author of Resource Allocation for Multiuser Multicarrier Wireless Systems, and holds several patents. He earned his BS from the University of the Philippines (2000) and his MS and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin (2004, 2007).
Agenda
Day 1 (2025/05/21):
| Time Slot (CDT) | Speaker(s) | Affiliation | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 – 09:30 | REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST | ||
| 09:30 – 10:00 | Janne Peisa Head of Connectivity Network Standards | Ericsson | AI and 6G |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Ian Wong Senior Director of RF and Wireless Architecture | VIAVI | 6G Test and Optimization: Challenges and Opportunities |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Christina Petersson VP and Head of IPR & Licensing | Ericsson | Ericsson Patent Leadership in 6G and the Importance of FRAND for R&D Funding |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Tommaso Melodia Lincoln Smith Professor and Director of WIoT | Northeastern University | How Open Architectures and AI Will Transform 6G Networks from Connectivity Platforms to Cognitive Ecosystems |
| 12:00 – 12:30 | Jimmy Ahlberg Director of Open Source Policy | Ericsson | The OAI Public License, a Business-Friendly License Designed for 6G and Beyond |
| 12:30 – 13:20 | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 13:20 – 13:40 | Laurent Thomas Raymond Knopp | Open Cells Project EURECOM | Software-Defined Radio Needs for 6G Prototyping |
| 13:40 – 14:00 | Tim O’Shea | Deepsig | Prototyping 6G AI-Native Communications and Sensing Capabilities on Open Source and SDR Platforms |
| 14:00 – 14:20 | Maximilian Stark | NXP Semiconductors | The Role of Edge-AI in Smart, Software-Defined Radio Modems |
| 14:20 – 15:00 | Raymond Knopp Alain Mourad Tommaso Melodia Sebastian Cammerer Doug Knisely | EURECOM InterDigital zTouch NVIDIA Qualcomm | Panel: Reviewing Open Source Trajectory for 4G, then 5G, and Examining its Positioning for 6G Moderator: Florian Kaltenberger – EURECOM/Northeastern University |
| 15:00 – 17:00 | COFFEE BREAK + DEMO & ERICSSON HQ STUDIO VISITS | ||
| 16:30 | SOCIAL EVENT | ||
| DEMOS | |||
| Martin Kasparick Paulo Marques Luís Pereira Navid Nikaein Luhan Wang Jérôme Härri Florian Kaltenberger John Keeney Anita Horvat Filipe Peixoto | Airpuls GmbH Allbesmart/IPCB Allbesmart BubbleRAN BUPT EURECOM EURECOM/NEU Ericsson EST Eridan IT | Using OpenAirInterface for 5G-TSN AI and RAN for Video Classification with NVIDIA Aerial Research Cloud Platform OAIBOX FR3: Accelerating Research in the 6G “Golden Band” using OAI MX-AI: The BubbleRAN Ecosystem for Multi-x Automation & Intelligence A Hybrid Semantic RAN Protocol Stack Design for 6G System and Implementation OAI 5G NR Sidelink Advanced Geolocalization with OAI OAI Supporting O-RAN with a Ready-to-Use Integrated SMO Solution Eridan’s 5G Radio Revolutionizes Wireless Communication with Coverage and Throughput Coexistence of ITS-G5 and 5G NR-U in the 5.9 GHz Band | |
| 17:00 | CLOSING OF DAY 1 |
Day 2 (2025/05/22):
| Time Slot (CDT) | Speaker(s) | Affiliation | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30 – 09:00 | REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST | ||
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Dag Lindbo Head of System Comprehensions Lab | Ericsson | The Role of AI in 6G Ericsson Custom Silicon |
| 09:30 – 10:00 | Issam Toufik CTO | ETSI | Latest 3GPP Insights on 6G Standardisation |
| 10:00 – 10:15 | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 10:15 – 11:45 | Doug Knisely Senior Director, Technical Standards | Qualcomm | The Next 10 Years of OAI |
| 10:45 – 11:05 | Florian Kaltenberger | EURECOM | Integrated Communications, Localization, and Sensing with OpenAirInterface |
| 11:05 – 12:00 | Paulo Marques Navid Nikaein Arpad Iozsa Tommaso Melodia Laurent Thomas | Allbesmart BubbleRAN Lasting Software zTouch Open Cells Project | Panel: How are Businesses Leveraging OAI and other Open Source: Markets and Opportunities Moderator: Sagar Arora – OpenAirInterface |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 13:00 – 13:20 | Pedram Johari | Northeastern University | Digital Twins for Wireless Networks: Enabling AI-driven & Programmable O-RAN Solution |
| 13:20 – 13:40 | Bartosz Podrygajlo | OpenAirInterface | Realistic Beamforming Simulation in OAI 5G Stack |
| 13:40 – 14:00 | Arpad Iozsa | Lasting Software | Lasting Software’s Path to 5G/6G NTN Breakthrough Technologies |
| 14:00 – 14:20 | Jevgenij Krivochiza | SES | OAI NGSO Live Demonstration: Assessing NTN Performance in a Satellite Environment |
| 14:20 – 14:40 | Sebastian Cammerer | NVIDIA | Sionna Research Kit: A GPU-Accelerated Research Platform for AI-RAN |
| 14:40 – 15:00 | Vincent Kotzsch | NI/EMERSON | Real-Time Neural Receiver Prototyping and Validation with NI USRP and OAI |
| 15:00 – 17:00 | COFFEE BREAK + DEMO & ERICSSON HQ STUDIO VISITS | ||
| DEMOS | |||
| Dang Kien Nguyen Usha Padmini Tetsuya Iye Arpad Iozsa Xin Zhe Khooi Gabriele Gemmi Andrea Lacava Teodora Vladić Laurent Thomas Stefan Spettel | Ericsson IOS-MCN KKE Lasting Software NUS Northeastern University Northeastern University OpenAirInterface Open Cells Project Phine.tech | A Demonstration of a Detection System for RRC Signaling Storm Attacks with OAI IOSMCN and its Contributions to Open Sources – Present and Future E2E 5G Mobility Emulation in a Wireless Digital Twin Realized by OAI & Sionna RT Fully Digital 5G NTN Testbed: Scalable Validation Using DiFi Transport Towards Seamless CU/DU Software Updates Real-Time Digital Twins with Hardware in the Loop Real-Time Spectrum Sharing with dApps in OAI Improving Testing of OAI O-DU with VIAVI TM500 Open Cells SDR and OpenAirInterface Robotics integration into the OAI-based Virtual 5G Lab | |
| 17:00 | CLOSING |
Recordings
Day One Morning (2025/05/21)
Day One Afternoon (2025/05/21)
Day Two Morning (2025/05/22)
Day Two Afternoon (2025/05/22)
Accommodation & access:
Accommodation: Here are different hotel recommendations near the University of Texas at Austin:
Access: There are different ways to reach Ericsson HQ. You can arrive:
- By Public transport: to get to Ericsson HQ in Kista, take the subway to Kista station or the commuter train to Helenelund station. From there, most of Ericsson’s buildings can be reached within a 5/10-minute walk (Stockholm Public Transportation).
- By Taxi: Ericsson collaborates with these taxi companies:
– Cabonline (Taxi Kurir, Sverigetaxi) +46 8 744 95 60 - By plane: You can travel to Kista from the airports by public transport, airport coach, or airport train.
– Bromma airport
– Arlanda Airport