Ericsson and Telstra expanded their autonomous networks partnership to develop sharing network knowledge between systems and AI agents.

Following on from their collaboration first announced last year, the next phase will establish a jointly led working group focused on three technical areas: knowledge classification, cross-domain knowledge exchange, and knowledge-grounded AI agents.

The companies want to address inconsistencies between the different knowledge models used by operators and vendors, which can prevent autonomous systems from reliably exchanging information or acting on it.

Developing a common knowledge taxonomy is the project's first order, establishing how network information should be classified and how systems can determine its reliability before using it to make operational decisions.

This will be accompanied by work on knowledge exchange and composition, developing common patterns for combining information from different network domains, vendors, and data formats.

The third area will examine how agents can use trusted information throughout the network management life cycle, from interpreting operational intent and assessing network conditions to making decisions and executing changes.

Telstra and Ericsson said the working group will publish its findings and identify potential follow-on research with a view to contributing the results to industry organizations including TM Forum.

"Autonomous networks require more than the automation of individual tasks. They depend on a shared understanding of what the network is, what it is expected to do, and how much confidence can be placed in the knowledge supporting each decision," Telstra Chief Architect Mark Sanders explained. "By working with Ericsson on common approaches to knowledge and trusted agency, we can help address these foundational challenges and contribute to the industry’s progress toward more interoperable and dependable network autonomy.”

“The evolution toward autonomous networks will require collaboration across the telecommunications industry," Mats Karlsson, head of solution area business and operations support systems (BSS/OSS) at Ericsson, added. "Common approaches to knowledge, knowledge exchange, and trustworthy AI will be important to enable autonomous capabilities to operate more consistently across domains and technology environments. Our expanded collaboration with Telstra is an opportunity to explore these foundations, share outcomes with the industry, and support the development of more open and scalable approaches to network autonomy.”