Case Study: AI-Enabled Service Assurance from Lab to Field

At the joint Nokia and New York University (NYU) Brooklyn 6G Summit 2025, VIAVI and Northeastern University’s digital twin demonstration received the “Best Demonstration” award in recognition of its potential application across a wide variety of use cases from lab to field, including cellular wireless, modular and synthetic, radio test, and alternate Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT).

The industry is facing a critical shortage of field engineers with the domain expertise required to engineer, deploy, optimize and maintain wireless networks. Planning field rollout of new technology, and the drive testing traditionally required to support this, also incur significant additional costs.

VIAVI and Northeastern University’s “AI-Enabled Service Assurance for 6G: Lab to Field” demo showcased how these costs can be avoided while delivering deployments of new technology that effectively serves customer needs. The demo combined AIRMap, an AI-enhanced coverage mapping tool for rapid and accurate path loss prediction, with a field test platform enhanced by generative AI-driven task-specific intelligence and guidance. By using the generative AI from AIRMap to produce an accurate baseline network coverage map and task-specific intelligence and guidance for site workers, the skill threshold required for achieving effective 6G deployments is substantially reduced.

As part of the live demonstration, VIAVI partnered with Northeastern University’s Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things to render signal coverage maps based on an area in Boston. Our data collection combined with Northeastern University’s computational capability enabled a higher level of accuracy compared to other raytracers. Statistical optimizations are implemented in the AI model to generate predictions faster.

A second demonstration titled “Enabling Robustness With AI for Essential 6G Infrastructure” highlighted its use of embedded AI to support essential 6G infrastructure. In collaboration with Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Yonsei University and the AI-RAN Alliance, we showcased an advanced deep reinforcement learning (DRL) proposal to address interference issues between multiple massive MIMO base stations. We also presented AI-based solutions that leverage non-GNSS timing sources to obtain and maintain accurate timing for 6G networks. Confidence in the accuracy and authenticity of timing sources is enhanced by the strategic application of embedded AI in several modes.

In addition to the live demonstrations, VIAVI also participated in a panel titled “Deep Dive: Data for AI” and showcased cutting edge wireless work from VIAVI Marconi Labs ™, the OneAdvisor 800, SecurePNT 6000 series, and the CLAW GPS simulator.

Jointly organized by Nokia and the NYU Wireless Research Center, the Brooklyn 6G Summit (B6GS) is a premier event for the global communications industry, bringing together leaders from technology, business, academia and regulatory bodies to shape the future of the industry. In 2025, the event was held at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and livestreamed to more than 1,600 attendees.