en.Wedoany.com Reported - Ericsson recently announced the expansion of its "Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform" (EIAP) from the Radio Access Network (RAN) domain to the core network, creating a unified automation platform for both RAN and core networks. This move aims to help Communications Service Providers (CSPs) accelerate their transition to autonomous networks, simplify operations, optimize costs, and build more resilient and high-performance core networks to enhance user experience.

With the introduction of new features, a data streaming capability called "Ericsson Stream Processing and Enhancement" (ESPE) has been integrated into the Ericsson Network Manager (ENM). As part of ENM's overall evolution strategy, ESPE serves as a "single source of truth" for low-latency network event data across the entire network, collecting data streams in real time from Ericsson RAN, core network nodes, and ORAN RAN nodes, and processing, enriching, exposing, and replicating them as needed.

Anders Vestergren, Head of Network Automation at Ericsson, stated that extending EIAP to the core network provides key enabling technology for customers' autonomous network transformation. The expanded EIAP offers a single source of truth for network topology and resource data through a central resource layer, and leverages ESPE's streaming capabilities to deliver reliable, low-latency data, providing operators with a simplified path to deploy high-value services while controlling costs and complexity. Monica Zethzon, Head of Core Network at Ericsson, believes that bringing EIAP automation capabilities into the core domain is about redesigning how automation operates in critical telecommunications areas. This expansion lays the foundation for Ericsson's intelligent core, helping operators simplify operations and transform their networks into innovation engines.

Rob Soni, Vice President of RAN Technology at AT&T, noted that extending EIAP to core network automation is a significant step forward for the industry. By running cApps and rApps on a single platform, operators gain key tools to realize their autonomous network vision, leveraging Agentic AI for real-time sensing, decision-making, and action. Philipp Bichsel, Executive Vice President of Mobile Network and Services at Swisscom, stated that EIAP and the rApp ecosystem are crucial components of their evolution toward higher levels of autonomy. The expansion of platform capabilities, including core network management and a platform for cApps, provides the market with powerful tools to build end-to-end autonomous programmable networks.

Roberto Kompany, Chief Analyst for Mobile Infrastructure at Omdia, believes that introducing automation into the core network has become a strategic solution for operators to address current challenges. This solution, as the latest addition to Ericsson's rapidly expanding product portfolio, aims to support operators' autonomous network transformation, providing customers with a centralized platform and building an application innovation ecosystem to drive multi-domain automation.

This expansion comes as global operators focus on autonomous network evolution. Data from late last year shows that 68% of operators have commercially deployed network or service automation, with 8% achieving large-scale deployment. Core network automation is increasingly seen as central to this transformation, with growing demand driven primarily by technology-leading operators already recognized as leaders in RAN automation. The expanded EIAP and enhanced network data management capabilities respond to this industry need by providing an integrated open platform for automated management of both RAN and core networks.

Operators including AT&T, Swisscom, Telstra, and Vodafone have already adopted Ericsson's EIAP to manage single-vendor and multi-vendor networks. Ericsson has also signed over 150 contracts with global operators for 5G core or cloud-native core networks. This widespread application across the product portfolio highlights the potential far-reaching impact of this new automation capability. This expansion means that EIAP, which runs rApps, will also be able to run new AI-driven cApps—automation applications for the core network—helping operators intelligently adjust network behavior. As EIAP evolves, cApps and rApps will be able to act as intelligent AI agents, leveraging the platform's built-in Agentic AI capabilities. Initial cApps will cover two main application areas: network scenarios to enhance network resilience and performance, and service-oriented scenarios to ensure premium customer experience. Ericsson's rApp ecosystem, with over 100 available rApps from more than 100 members, will serve as a model for a similar cApp ecosystem.