Huawei released an upgrade to its AI-driven WAN solution in the Chinese giant’s latest development of autonomous network infrastructure.

As unveiled at the 11th Ultra-Broadband Forum (UBBF 2025) in Paris, the update to Huawei’s AI WAN Solution aligns with the company’s roadmap for 5G-Advanced and 6G, dubbed the Net5.5G initiative.

Originally launched at MWC Barcelona 2025, the WAN tool has been updated with identification and profiling engines built using Unicom Cloud’s computing power scheduling platform. Huawei claimed the new features allow carriers to develop distinct broadband service offerings while boosting their ability to find new customers, identifying potential leads with greater accuracy.

The company cited the case study of China Telecom Shanghai, which used the solution to launch intelligent computing private lines services, while reportedly “enhancing cross-domain computing efficiency from 40% to over 95%” through workloads managed both across cloud and the network edge.

The update also includes data security via a vector conversion engine, session-level fault isolation, and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) additions.

Huawei and autonomous networks

Huawei also touted the WAN solution’s potential for autonomous networks as using its Xinghe AI platform. With Huawei's network-specific large language model (LLM) NetMaster as its agentic “brain," the WAN solution is designed to shift networks from a passive posture to a proactive operations and maintenance model, shortening mean time to repair.

The firm claimed MásOrange Spain deployed a level-four autonomous network with its AI WAN, improving efficiency and driving down costs via self-healing network properties.

The Spanish operator joins a global list including competitor Telefónica, Orange France, South Africa’s MTN, Denmark’s TDC NET, Vivo in Brazil, and Hungary’s 4iG, which all have piloted L4 trials using Huawei’s autonomous networking tech.

Competitors in the realm include Lumen Technologies who this week partnered with Digital Realty to release an AI WAN solution for major U.S. metro markets.

Autonomous initiatives have also come from IBM and its recent IBM Network Intelligence release, while Ribbon Communications’ recent artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) platform was designed to help service providers and enterprises transition to autonomous networks.

Ericsson, meanwhile, recently partnered with Australian telecom company Telstra on an autonomous network initiative. The firm also announced a collaboration this year with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to drive autonomous network development using agentic AI.

Ericsson has also worked on autonomous networks with Malaysia’s CelComDigi, as well as extensive operations with Malaysian telecom operator Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).

While U.S. sanctions have effectively locked Huawei out of several Western markets, Huawei’s AI WAN announcements across Europe – as well as deployments – shows that the firm continues to have some European presence, something which led Nokia CEO Justin Hotard to call on EU officials last month to potentially remove what he described as “high-risk" Chinese vendors from the continent.