HCLTech, Nokia launch AI rApps for 5G network automation

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

HCLTech and Nokia have launched four jointly developed AI-driven rApps on Nokia’s Service Management and Orchestration Marketplace, expanding their partnership in radio access network automation.

Designed for operators managing 5G networks, the applications target automation tasks at the network edge. They cover anomaly detection, energy use, massive MIMO interference mitigation and traffic balancing.

The tools will sit within Nokia’s autonomous networks portfolio and be available through the vendor’s open, standards-based marketplace. The arrangement is intended to make deployment easier for communications service providers operating in multivendor environments.

The software focuses on operational issues that network operators face as traffic patterns become harder to predict and radio environments grow more complex. One application, the Anomaly Detector rApp, monitors key performance indicators and network signals to identify and correlate irregularities across cells and users.

Another, the Energy Optimizer rApp, adjusts base station resources during periods of lower traffic. Its aim is to improve energy efficiency without affecting service quality, an issue that has become more prominent as operators seek to curb electricity costs while maintaining network performance.

The mMIMO Interference Mitigation rApp addresses inter-cell interference that can weaken signal quality, particularly for users at the edge of a cell. The software is designed to ease that interference and improve network efficiency.

The fourth tool, the Traffic Balancer rApp, analyses network conditions and redistributes traffic across available paths to reduce congestion and latency in areas where demand fluctuates rapidly.

Open ecosystem

Placing the software on Nokia’s marketplace reflects a broader push in telecoms towards open radio access network architectures and software-based operational tools. Operators have long pursued greater automation in network management, but implementation has often been slowed by integration challenges among equipment providers, software vendors and existing operational systems.

By using a standards-based marketplace model, the two companies are positioning the applications within an ecosystem that extends beyond a single-vendor setup. That may appeal to operators seeking to avoid lock-in as they introduce more software-led control across 5G infrastructure.

The partnership also includes a longer-term co-innovation plan to develop additional rApps for 5G and later network architectures. Neither company disclosed commercial terms of the expanded arrangement.

HCLTech is a large technology services group with more than 227,000 employees across 60 countries. It reported revenue of USD $14.7 billion for the 12 months to March 2026.

Nokia has been expanding its Service Management and Orchestration platform as operators look for ways to manage increasingly complex radio networks through applications rather than manual intervention. The use of rApps, designed for the non-real-time RAN intelligent controller layer, has become a central part of that strategy.

For operators, the practical question is whether such applications can move beyond limited trials and deliver measurable gains in live networks. Energy savings, interference management and congestion handling are among the more immediate use cases because they can directly affect operating costs and customer experience.

Hari Sadarahalli, Corporate Vice President and Global Head, Engineering and R&D Services at HCLTech, commented on the partnership.

“Autonomous networks require a strong ecosystem approach built on openness, intelligence and innovation,” said Hari Sadarahalli, Corporate Vice President and Global Head, Engineering and R&D Services at HCLTech. “Our partnership with Nokia enables us to bring scalable, AI-driven rApps to the forefront, helping operators accelerate network automation, improve efficiency and confidently advance toward self-driving networks.”