Contributed by China Mobile and Huawei, and supported by AIS, AsiaInfo, Infosys, Orange, Personal and ZTE, OpenAN brings A2A-T (Agent to Agent Protocol for Telecom) and telecom agents framework for Live network aligned with TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks standards.
Shanghai – GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) – June 25, 2026 – Linux Foundation Networking (LFN), the facilitator of collaboration and operational excellence across open source networking projects, today announced the addition of OpenAN as a Candidate project. OpenAN is a set of open source tools to implement Autonomous Networks (AN), which is defined in TM Forum’s AN Project, contributed by China Mobile and Huawei, and first unveiled at MWC Barcelona in March 2026.
The OpenAN project intends to develop out-of-the-box components through a suite of open source subprojects, so as to boost the Smart Link, Agile Build, and Deterministic Execute capabilities of network agents. The project empowers Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and vendors to implement and deploy Agents defined in the AN target architecture, across both service and network layers, with the goal of making fully autonomous, self-healing network operations a reality for CSPs worldwide.
“The move toward autonomous networks is one of the most consequential technology transitions in telecom right now, and it cannot succeed if every operator and vendor is solving it in isolation,” said Arpit Joshipura, SVP and General Manager, Networking, Edge and IoT at the Linux Foundation. “OpenAN brings the community together around a common, open framework for multi-agent collaboration building off industry standards like A2A, hosted at the Linux Foundation.”
Because OpenAN is built on open industry standards including A2A protocol for telecom, Agent Architecture, Solution Package, CSPs are not locked into any single vendor’s AI stack. Automation workflows, agent skills, and best practices developed by one operator or vendor can be shared across the entire community, compounding the value of every contribution.
The OpenAN project encompasses three categories of open source components: the A2A-T common component, Agent Framework, and AN ontology. Phase 1 of the project prioritizes the development and promotion of open source components for A2A-T, with detailed information set out below:
- A2A‑T SDK – Delivers the implementation of the A2A‑T extension, handling encapsulation and decapsulation of A2A‑T messages to enable agent‑to‑agent communication.
- Registry Center – Acts as a centralized agent registry, managing the registration, discovery, and full lifecycle of Network‑Layer Agents and Service‑Layer Agents.
- Orchestration Center – Enables multi‑agent workflow design, execution, and visual management; and supports seamless import of TM Forum AN Solution Packages to accelerate the adoption of target process for AN high-value scenarios.
As the chair of the OpenAN project, China Mobile, together with founding members such as Huawei, ZTE, and AsiaInfo, jointly hosted the global launch ceremony of the OpenAN project with LFN during MWC Shanghai on June 25. China Mobile’s representative stated, “We will proactively lead the direction of multi-agent collaboration technology, actively contribute open source code, and take the lead in validating and deploying open source components on live networks at scale. We will also collaborate with global industry partners to harness the power of open source, create network value, and build a new ecosystem for AN L4.”
Concurrently, the first offline meeting of the founding members of OpenAN, organized by LFN and sponsored by Huawei, was held simultaneously in Copenhagen. During the meeting, industry partners discussed and reviewed OpenAN’s objectives, charter, and governance system. Representatives from China Mobile, AIS, Infosys, and ZTE shared their innovations and practices in areas such as “AN L4 implementation, agent construction, and A2A-T application validation.”
Mr. Sam Wang, General Manager of Huawei’s ADN SDT, who also serves as Co-Chair of the Adopter Advisory Committee for the OpenAN project, stated at the inaugural offline member meeting: “The core objective of the OpenAN project is to accelerate the realization of AN Level 4. Backed by TM Forum’s AN standards and the LFN’s outstanding community operations and global outreach, the project is poised for rapid growth. We encourage global industry partners to actively contribute to and utilize the open source code, accelerate component innovation and version iterations, and drive the widespread application of OpenAN’s outcomes in commercial solutions and live networks.”
OpenAN’s initial open source release occurred at GSMA MWC 2026 in Shanghai. The project operates under the Apache 2.0 license. Scenario-based solution packages developed through joint operator innovation are planned for later in 2026, with commercial verification targeted for 2027.
To learn more or get involved, visit openan.dev and lfnetworking.org.
