Providing solutions in 5G core network 

Startup Mantra | Network Solutions 

Autonomous 5G (A5G), a start-up founded by Pune and Boston-based co-founders, focused its energies on meeting growing demand in the telecom industry 

To ace distribution and autonomous 5G core network software for private and public networks, Autonomous 5G (A5G) Networks was started by Rajesh Mishra, Kaitki Agarwal, Kartik Raval, and Ravi Nathwani in 2020. 

Mishra, who lives in Boston, is an inveterate IT specialist with over 100 patents already filed in his name. 

But technology, too, is constantly evolving. It has its limitations till someone finds a better way of doing it. As Rajesh did. He says, “I have been in the telecom industry for over three decades and felt that the networks used were grossly inefficient. My co-founders, Kaitki Agarwal (Boston), Kartik Rawal and Ravi Nathwani (both are based in Pune), too, are tech natives with several years of experience in the telecom industry.” 

All these years in the same industry resulted in Rajesh seeing a clear problem emerging. Conventionally, the networks write programs that control the traffic a network deals with at any given time. Calls made may go through to the end or get dropped midway, depending on the traffic.  

“But if the call is more lucrative, say an international traveller is calling, then that gets priority. But then again, if a VIP, say head of state, is using it at the same time the network will give priority to that number. There are many scenarios. All this was being done via programs using old technology. I thought, why not use AI and Machine Learning that could cut the time (and cost) and give a user a smooth experience?” 

Rajesh explains the spectrum business in simpler language.  

“The govt holds the license and sells off spectrum (much like a 2 lane or 4 lane or 5 lane highway) to networks. To provide the telecom service, they need to build towers to send out signals and software that translates the actions required. Calls made will get connected via software commands and depending on various conditions (high traffic, data congestion, etc) also dropped or slowed down. What was happening was that the software that is the brain of any network would talk to multiple towers using traditional software and simplistic logic. As the network conditions change, such as tower failures, and user traffic patterns change, you need the likes of Systems Integrators to go out and reconfigure the whole thing – such as re-routing the traffic, adding new tower capacity etc. But with a new generation of AI-driven software, these problems can go away! 

“If, say a person uses an app to watch a film on his mobile phone. Networks have a code written so that when one is using video content, you give a few seconds of buffer before starting so it won’t crash because of heavy demand on the network. There are many scenarios like this where one needs to have software written typically to figure out what’s happening and then switch to the solution. 

“What we did was use ML and AI to figure out all such issues automatically. These technologies will figure out on their own if a tower is congested or how to reroute if a tower goes down; the service does not have to learn if it is a voice call or a video call. Using AI and ML is like driving a 

Tesla car. It will figure out the route, what to do if there’s a traffic jam, and take the best possible way out.” 

In 2021, A5G (Autonomous 5G Networks) developed a solution that could tackle the rapid growth in data for reliable, high-speed connectivity in both public and private networks. “Ours was a smarter, self-healing, self-managing solution that could meet the needs of the future.” 

What did it take? 

“We had quite a few demands from the solution that we wanted to develop. We wanted it to be at least 20 times more efficient, self-managing and self-healing, one that could run on a server, public or private cloud, one that could run autonomously and be scaled up and down as required. 

“For enterprises that used operator spectrum, we felt that we should be able to provide them with a secured private network that could keep security and controls under the company rather than the operator.” This is particularly useful for corporates that do not have 5G spectrum as many do in India but still want to operate and control their own Private Networks for all the Digital Transformation and Automation coming up in various kinds of industries. 

Says Rajesh, “This we manage through a unique and patented Reverse Slicing concept allowing the private and the public networks to co-exist harmoniously together sharing the available spectrum.” 

It took A5G four years and so far a total investment of “around $10 Million. We initially secured VC backing from the Bharat Innovation Fund, a deep tech-focused venture capital fund. Later we got funding from another VC Fund Inflexor, and also from several angels in the US and Europe, who themselves are networking veterans. This funding allowed us to rapidly develop and test our core technology, engage with customers, and build a strong foundational team.” 

The proof of the pudding 

Is in the testing. Understanding this very crucial role once they had their solution ready, Rajesh used his several decades-old relationships to collaborate with leading companies in the industry such as RedHat, NVidia, Naptech, Intel, VMWare and Dell to further validate their technology. “Our deep integration of AI and the ability to scale across 4G, 5G, WiFi and 6G networks ensures we’re prepared for the future demands of connectivity. 

“Additionally, our collaboration with industry leaders like RedHat, NVidia, Napatech, Intel, VMWare and Dell Technologies further validated our approach – the demand for our autonomous networks and the viability of our solution to address issues plaguing them.” 

Can a little flea compete with big elephants? 

Rajesh is acutely aware of the playing field that they will operate in. “Our competitors are big. They have the muscle power and the funds. But that can sometimes be the very reason that makes them slow. As a start-up, we are agile. We can switch from one solution to the other easily. We had to be disruptive. We couldn’t go to a Jio and ask them to drop, say, an Ericsson or Nokia, now could we? So we demonstrated our cost-effectiveness.” 

Given the ever-growing demand for data, data centres are the new reality. This bunch of computers that constitute a data centre runs in some other city. More demand for data means more such data centres. We demonstrated with AMD chips (that are used for servers) that the whole traffic in India can be managed with just 15 servers with our technology while currently, this needs about 300 servers.” Reducing the capital expenditure for any company by more than 90 per cent sure seems unbeatable! 

Says Rajesh confidently, “though our main competitors are traditional public network solution providers like industry leaders like Nokia and Ericsson, we stand out due to our unique blend of AI-driven Networks, ability to offer 20X more efficiency, hardware-agnostic, ability to run on any server, public or private cloud and a self-healing self-managed network design. 

“At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2024, we demonstrated a whopping 1.5 TBps on a single standard hardware server, this is unprecedented in the industry!” 

The way forward 

If the giants take a lot longer to develop a similar solution, it may not be the case with other start-ups. Rajesh is not unduly worried about that, as their innovator team has authored over 200 patents. Says he, “We have filed 15+ patents for our technology and so far five have been granted. We are confident that our technology will change how the mobile technology is currently operating.” 

The market for AI-driven, autonomous networks is only emerging now, and A5G is one of the early movers. Says Rajesh, “We are focusing on the premium private network segment where privacy, reliability, and performance matter. We aim to capture a significant portion of the market in the coming years by focusing on strategic deployments in private enterprise networks, key telecom operators, and emerging markets like India. 

A5G Networks is also working with Indian Railways to enable mission-critical communications for the Kavach program, enabling the technology that continues to operate the network even if there are fibre disruptions. 

“Later we plan to expand our presence in both emerging and developed markets. Additionally, we will continue innovating in AI, particularly for deep packet inspection and security, and further scale our solutions for 6G networks to meet evolving demands.” Technology is ever-evolving and so will A5G!