Linux Foundation Announces OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation to Accelerate Open Source AI-RAN Innovation

• The OCUDU Project is the home to CU and DU open source RAN software; the Ecosystem Foundation and associated assets for CI/CD/CT to establish foundational code base for 5G and early 6G
• Global industry leaders AMD, AT&T, DeepSig, Ericsson, Nokia, NVIDIA, Softbank Corp., SRS and Verizon along with 21 general members and 17 research institutions join as founding members to spearhead this private-public partnership enabling direct access to the AI Native OCUDU software-defined RAN solution upon which to build and innovate 5G and early 6G networks solutions and applications

BARCELONA, Spain, March 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile World Congress 2026 -- The Linux Foundation (LF), the world's leading home for open collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data, today announced the formation of the Open Centralized Unit Distributed Unit (OCUDU) Ecosystem Foundation, an open collaboration hub dedicated to building, scaling, and sustaining the OCUDU technical project assets and leveraging them to establish a foundational reference platform for RAN including AI based algorithms and solutions. The OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation provides a critical mechanism for industry vendors to optimally guide OCUDU development to support 5G and early AI Native 6G services. 

OCUDU started with an investment from the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) and the FutureG Office, which awarded funds to AI Native wireless company DeepSig and Software Radio Systems (SRS) to build the initial software for OCUDU.

The OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation brings together an ecosystem across enterprise, telecom operators, cloud providers, equipment vendors, and research institutions to co-develop and integrate critical components required for 5G and early 6G deployments. This community-driven model complements global standards from 3GPP and O-RAN alliance and industry alliances like AI-RAN alliance. This global effort ensures that innovation, transparency, and interoperability remain at the core of global software-defined RAN evolution.

"By aligning global efforts under the Linux Foundation, we're building an open, trusted, and secure open source platform to power the next decade of wireless innovation," said Dr. Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, at the Linux Foundation. "The OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation represents a key step forward in open source RAN, specifically for CU and DU." 

"This initiative brings the best of the open source model to one of the most critical layers of future wireless: the foundation for an interoperable, software-defined radio access network," said Dr. Tom Rondeau, principal director for FutureG. "By shifting the maintenance of these common components to a collaborative, open-source project, under neutral governance at the Linux Foundation, we enable our industry partners to focus their resources on the innovative and monetizable technologies that are most effective for the nation. We are building a foundation that enables shared success and accelerates progress for the entire ecosystem. We are looking forward to seeing this approach provide a vital platform for strengthening our relationships and collaboration with our allies and international partners."

"The key to driving innovation in wireless is to leverage a broad ecosystem of experts in networking, radio software, and emerging AI technologies," said Joe Kochan, CEO of NSC. "What started with a competitive proposal process to elicit the best technology solutions from among NSC's large and diverse membership is now expanding under the Linux Foundation, and NSC is proud to continue partnering with both LF and the FutureG team to advance OCUDU development efforts and build the next generation of wireless capabilities."

General members of the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation include 1Finity, Aalyria, Abside Networks, Airspan, Altio Labs, Booz Allen, Cirrus360, Cisco, Cohere Technologies, ISCO International, JMA Wireless, Keysight Technologies, Marvell, ORAN Development Company, Raycom Wireless, Radisys, Red Hat, Sempre.ai, Skylark Wireless, T-Mobile, and Viavi. 

Key Objectives of the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation

• Create a public-private commercial and research ecosystem and an open source stack for open source CU and DU (part of Open RAN)
• House the OCUDU Project and other associated open source projects over time
• Foster global collaboration across all areas in the RAN along with end-to-end solutions based on super blueprints across other open source foundations (including documentation, testing, integration and the creation of other artifacts) that aid the development, deployment, operation or adoption of the open source project.

The OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation combined with ongoing open networking initiatives such as LF Networking (LFN) extends the open source communities deeper into RAN intelligence, automation, and edge orchestration.

University Participation and Research & Labs Collaboration

The OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation also welcomes participation from universities and research labs to help strengthen the initiative's research-to-production pipeline and workforce development. By bringing academic partners into the same open governance model as industry and government stakeholders, the Foundation will accelerate applied research, reproducible experimentation, and validation of CU/DU innovations in real-world environments. University collaborators can contribute to areas such as next-generation PHY/MAC research, AI/ML-driven RAN optimization, security and resilience, energy efficiency, and test methodologies, while helping to educate and grow the next generation of open source RAN engineers. Participating institutions include Georgia Tech Applied Research Corporation, Idaho National Laboratory, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University, Northeastern University, Rice University, SRI International, Texas A&M University, The MITRE Corporation, UC San Diego, UNH Interoperability Labs, University of Notre Dame, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Utah, and VT Research Contracting Services.  

"Through the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program and other wireless infrastructure efforts, NSF has spent years fostering an open-source environment and has played a crucial role in supporting the early development of infrastructure that enables open-source wireless research," said Behrooz Shirazi, NSF Senior Science Advisor. "OCUDU will build on these efforts with the support of partnering universities and scale them to create a global, production-ready research ecosystem."

Supporting Quotes

AMD

"Open ecosystems and standards-based collaboration are essential to unlocking the next era of wireless innovation. By joining the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, AMD is helping advance an AI-native, software-defined RAN foundation that enables greater interoperability and empowers operators, vendors, and developers worldwide. This open source, consortium-driven model helps the industry drive innovation and accelerate the path from 5G to scalable 6G systems built on transparent, trusted technologies," said Derek Dicker, corporate vice president, Enterprise Business Group, AMD.

AT&T

"With nearly 150 years of supporting government communications, we're proud to partner with the Department of War and Linux Foundation effort in advancing an open, multi-vendor ecosystem," said Jeff McElfresh, Chief Operating Officer, AT&T, Inc.

DeepSig

"OCUDU represents an important step towards faster-moving, open and software-driven future mobile networks," said DeepSig CEO Jim Shea. "By creating an open foundation on leading computer platforms, it enables innovation to move faster and reduce integration, interoperability and new technology insertion costs and delays. DeepSig is proud to help build the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation to support an open, transparent and competitive future for wireless connectivity. As government and industry demand more advanced capabilities, new functionality, and greater efficiency from their networks, the ecosystem will benefit from a neutral environment where AI-native innovation can thrive and mature more quickly than traditional standardization processes alone. OCUDU creates that foundation, allowing AI-RAN applications to be embedded directly into the software network stack and delivering resilient, high-performance connectivity independent of the underlying hardware, catalyzing 6G and new mobile network value."

Ericsson

"Joining OCUDU as a founding premier member reflects Ericsson's long-standing commitment to open innovation and secure, interoperable networks," said Erik Ekudden, CTO, Ericsson. "Working within the Linux Foundation community, we will help shape a technology‑neutral RAN foundation that advances resilient, open RAN architectures where trusted, high‑performance connectivity enables and accelerates 5G and paves the way for AI-native 6G in the U.S. and globally."

Nokia

"Open collaboration is essential to accelerating the AI native transformation of the RAN," said Pallavi Mahajan, Chief Technology and AI Officer at Nokia. "By participating in the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, we are deepening our commitment to open, interoperable, software-defined networks. This initiative brings together the best of industry, academia, and government to build a robust foundation for 5G and early 6G innovation. We are proud to contribute our expertise to the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, and we are looking forward to working closely with FutureG to help drive the next wave of intelligent, energy-efficient, and globally scalable RAN technologies."

NVIDIA

"As we look toward the future of wireless, 6G must be fully software-defined and built on AI-native, open, and trustworthy platforms," said Ronnie Vasishta, senior vice president of Telecommunications at NVIDIA. "In addition to open sourcing the NVIDIA AI Aerial RA software libraries software-defined RAN framework, joining the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation is the next step in that commitment to enable broad ecosystem innovation and provide the foundational tools necessary for the industry to build AI-native 6G networks."

SoftBank Corp.

"AI-RAN will define the next era of wireless networks, and SoftBank is committed to leading that transformation," said Ryuji Wakikawa, Vice President and Head of the Research Institute of Advanced Technology at SoftBank Corp. "Accelerating AI-RAN requires innovation across the entire industry ecosystem, including vendors, operators, academia, and government agencies. Through OCUDU, we are building a carrier-grade open-source foundation and fostering cross-sector collaboration to advance AI innovation and a globally competitive, interoperable RAN ecosystem. We have strong expectations that OCUDU will play a key role in realizing AI-RAN."

SRS

"For over a decade, SRS has led the way in delivering trusted, open software for mobile wireless networks," said Paul Sutton, CEO of Software Radio Systems. "Being selected as CU/DU providers for the OCUDU project marks a significant milestone for our team. Building upon the srsRAN Project, OCUDU moves the industry closer to the 'Linux of RAN' — a carrier-grade, open-source software platform that will drive innovation and accelerate the deployment of next-generation wireless networks." 

About the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation

The OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, hosted by the Linux Foundation, is a global public-private initiative dedicated to building a commercial and research ecosystem around a production-ready open source CU/DU stack. By fostering collaboration across the entire RAN lifecycle, from R&D to end-to-end integration, OCUDU provides the reference architectures, conformance tooling, and "super blueprints" required to scale Open RAN from pilot projects to global production.

About the Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is the trusted home for critical open‑source projects and ecosystems that power global infrastructure, including cloud, networking, embedded, and AI. LF provides neutral governance, security and compliance best practices, and world‑class program operations that enable communities and companies to build together. More at linuxfoundation.org.

Media Contact
Jill Lovato
The Linux Foundation
[email protected] 

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SOURCE The Linux Foundation