Artificial Intelligence-Defined 5G Radio Access Networks

Massive multiple-input multiple-output antenna systems, millimeter wave communications, and ultra-dense networks have been widely perceived as the three key enablers that facilitate the development and deployment of 5G systems. This article discusses the intelligent agent in 5G base station which combines sensing, learning, understanding and optimizing to facilitate these enablers. We present a flexible, rapidly deployable, and cross-layer artificial intelligence (AI)-based framework to enable the imminent and future demands on 5G and beyond infrastructure. We present example AI-enabled 5G use cases that accommodate important 5G-specific capabilities and discuss the value of AI for enabling beyond 5G network evolution.