MWC; zTouch.OS; Keysight; SoftBank; Northeastern University; Agents; AI-RAN
zTouch Networks, SoftBank, Keysight and Northeastern University Demonstrate Autonomous Agentic AI-RAN at MWC Barcelona 2026
1. A first-of-its-kind Agentic AI-RAN, live in Barcelona
At MWC Barcelona 2026, zTouch Networks joined Northeastern University's Institute for Intelligent Networked Systems (INSI), SoftBank Corp., and Keysight Technologies to demonstrate Autonomous Agentic AI-RAN (AgentRAN) — a first-of-its-kind system that coordinates a hierarchy of AI agents to translate high-level operator intents into real-time, autonomous 5G and 6G network configurations and services. The demo ran March 2–5 at the Keysight booth, Hall 5, Stand 5F41, where visitors could see the full intent-to-network pipeline in action, including the AgentRAN dashboard, LTM integration, and real-time channel emulation.
2. How it works: intent in, autonomous network out
Developed at Northeastern's Open6G AI-RAN Alliance Lab, AgentRAN lets operators express goals in plain language — for example, "maximize throughput while prioritizing emergency traffic" — and the AgentRAN Manager decomposes those intents into actions for specialized agents operating across the RAN stack. The agents are powered by SoftBank's Large Telecom Model (LTM), a purpose-built foundation model trained on telecom-specific KPIs, configurations, and domain data, and further optimized with high-fidelity training data generated by Keysight's RaySIM and PROPSIM RF digital-twin channel emulation. zTouch.OS orchestrates the end-to-end AI-RAN infrastructure underneath, configuring the network in real time as intents arrive.
3. Why it matters
The demonstration is the clearest proof yet that intent-driven, autonomous wireless networks are operational technology, not a roadmap promise. It also brings together — for the first time around a shared system — Northeastern's research foundation, SoftBank's telecom foundation model, Keysight's testing and digital-twin tooling, and zTouch.OS as the orchestration layer. As zTouch CTO Salvatore D'Oro put it at the show: "Operators can express an intent in plain language and watch the network configure itself in real time. Truly autonomous, intent-driven wireless networks aren't a future promise — they're here."
Read the full press release: PR Newswire announcement →
Watch the demo:
