Agentic AI for Mobile Network RAN Management and Optimization

Agentic AI represents a new paradigm for automating complex systems by using Large AI Models (LAMs) to provide human-level cognitive abilities with multimodal perception, planning, memory, and reasoning capabilities. This will lead to a new generation of AI systems that autonomously decompose goals, retain context over time, learn continuously, operate across tools and environments, and adapt dynamically. The complexity of 5G and upcoming 6G networks renders manual optimization ineffective, pointing to Agentic AI as a method for automating decisions in dynamic RAN environments. However, despite its rapid advances, there is no established framework outlining the foundational components and operational principles of Agentic AI systems nor a universally accepted definition. This paper contributes to ongoing research on Agentic AI in 5G and 6G networks by outlining its core concepts and then proposing a practical use case that applies Agentic principles to RAN optimization. We first introduce Agentic AI, tracing its evolution from classical agents and discussing the progress from workflows and simple AI agents to Agentic AI. Core design patterns-reflection, planning, tool use, and multi-agent collaboration-are then described to illustrate how intelligent behaviors are orchestrated. These theorical concepts are grounded in the context of mobile networks, with a focus on RAN management and optimization. A practical 5G RAN case study shows how time-series analytics and LAM-driven agents collaborate for KPI-based autonomous decision-making.