Late at night, a core device in a data center suddenly malfunctions. There is no need to urgently call engineers or carry out rushed troubleshooting. Within seconds, the system automatically detects the fault, pinpoints the cause, and seamlessly switches traffic to a backup link. Users can continue watching videos, attending meetings, and playing games without any awareness of the incident. This is not science fiction, but a reality taking shape as AI is deeply integrated into communication networks: networks are evolving from passive, failure-prone equipment into intelligent living organisms that can independently sense, diagnose, repair, and even self-evolve.
Traditional Network Operations: A Never-Ending Game of “Whack-a-Mole”
For decades, network operations have relied heavily on manual work. Engineers have to monitor screens closely, wait for alarms, then manually locate faults, adjust parameters, and coordinate repairs. Resolving a single fault often takes hours and involves more than a dozen steps. In the 5G era, base station density has increased sharply, and the number of core network elements has surged. As frontline engineers put it: “It is like looking for a needle in an ocean, and new problems keep popping up endlessly.”
AI Integration into RAN and Core Networks: Equipping Networks with an “Immune System”
The core of a self-healing network is an AI-driven autonomous closed loop, which consists of five key steps: continuous sensing, AI prediction, intelligent decision-making, automatic execution, and verification & learning.
At the Radio Access Network (RAN) level, AI agents perform 7×24 “health checks” on base stations. Huawei’s wireless intelligent solution has been deployed at over 500,000 sites worldwide, reducing fault recovery time from 90 minutes to just 15 minutes. What is more advanced is multi-agent collaboration: at a 5G-Advanced demonstration site in Hangzhou, when a robotic dog performs a coffee delivery task, three types of agents—experience assurance, fault management, and network optimization—cooperate automatically to prioritize critical services, with no user intervention required throughout the process.
At the core network level, AI undertakes “brain-like” functions such as user authentication, session management, and routing scheduling. A joint demonstration by NEC and AWS proves that agentic AI can autonomously manage the full lifecycle of a 5G core UPF, cutting configuration time from weeks to hours. State-of-the-art intelligent core network solutions go further: when a fault occurs, traffic is automatically switched to restore services first; root causes are then analyzed, configurations generated, verified in a digital twin environment, and finally repaired. Service deployment is compressed from hours to minutes.
Real-World Applications of Self-Healing Networks
Commercial deployments by operators have validated the value of self-healing technology. During the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi operator stc deployed Nokia’s AI system, which performed over 15,000 autonomous adjustments per hour at peak times. This resulted in a 60% reduction in cell outages and a 10% increase in peak throughput. Deutsche Telekom’s RAN Guardian Agent takes a step further: it proactively scans social media to predict large-scale events and pre-allocates resources in advance, shifting operations from “post-incident firefighting” to “pre-emptive provisioning”.
Challenges and the Future
Self-healing networks cannot be built overnight. Data silos, multi-vendor interoperability, and the explainability of AI decisions remain practical challenges. If AI makes an incorrect decision, how should liability be defined? Nevertheless, the industry is accelerating toward Level 4 high autonomy as defined by TM Forum (nearly zero human intervention). 2026 is a critical year for large-scale commercial deployment, with the A2A-T multi-agent collaboration protocol regarded as a key enabling technology.
Looking ahead to the 6G era, AI will be natively integrated with networks. 3GPP has included the definition of “AI Agent” in its standards. The 6G autonomous RAN proposed by China Mobile Research Institute is expected to complete optimization of both base station coverage and power configuration in under 20 seconds.
Conclusion
Building truly self-healing networks requires collaboration across all segments of the telecommunications industry chain.
As a global leader in 4G/5G/6G core network solutions, IPLOOK has deep roots in the core network sector for more than a decade. We are committed to providing end-to-end mobile communication solutions to customers worldwide, with products and services covering critical industries such as satellite communications, energy communications, and power grid communications, and large-scale commercial deployment in more than 50 countries and regions.
Looking forward, with the continuous evolution of 5G-Advanced and 6G technologies, IPLOOK will keep partnering with global allies to build secure, intelligent, and sustainable communication networks.
