AURORA-6G teaches future 6G networks to run themselves
Future 6G networks will be too complex to manage by hand. The new AURORA-6G research project, led by the University of Oulu, develops artificial intelligence that lets a network interpret its operator’s goals and run itself with minimal human intervention.
Business Finland announced its funding decision on 18 August 2026 under its 6G Bridge programme. The project, titled “AI-driven Unified O-RAN for Real-time Autonomous Zero-touch Networks”, runs until the end of 2028 with a total budget of 750,000 euros. Business Finland covers 600,000 euros of that, and the rest comes from the partner companies and the universities’ own funding.
The Centre for Wireless Communications (CWC) at the University of Oulu leads the work. Aalto University is the research partner, and Elisa, Nokia and Poutanet join as company partners. Professor Antti Tölli of CWC coordinates the project.
Open Radio Access Network, or O-RAN, makes mobile networks flexible and programmable, but also increases the complexity of network management. Future networks will expose a growing number of configurable functions, interfaces and control parameters, while generating large amounts of data on traffic, radio conditions, network performance and user demand. AURORA-6G addresses this complexity through AI-driven, increasingly agentic control that translates an operator’s high-level intent into coordinated network actions. The project also studies how O-RAN control can jointly optimise signalling, functional splits, radio-resource management and the placement of network functions. A digital twin, a virtual replica of the network, evaluates control actions before they are applied to the real system, reducing operational risk.
“As 6G networks become more distributed, heterogeneous and programmable, the number of parameters and decisions that need to be coordinated will increase dramatically. Zero-touch operation goes beyond automating individual tasks. The network must interpret the operator’s objectives, combine information from across the system and coordinate actions over different timescales. Agentic AI can enable this while continuously adapting to changing conditions,” says Professor Antti Tölli.
The solutions will be validated on real-time O-RAN testbeds, including cross-border experiments between Finland and South Korea. The project works with Yonsei University in Seoul and forms part of the joint Finnish-Korean 6G research programme. The collaboration combines the O-RAN research expertise of the University of Oulu and Aalto University, the operator perspective of Elisa, Nokia’s network and equipment expertise, Yonsei University’s long experience in building advanced wireless testbeds, and two private-network operators, one in each country, providing operational expertise. Together, these capabilities enable experiments across network configurations and use cases that would be difficult to realise within either country alone.
The results are expected to open new business opportunities in intelligent network management and autonomous network platforms. They also support the shift towards more energy-efficient, cost-efficient and reliable communication networks, from consumer connectivity to mission-critical services.