Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced the company is expanding its collaboration with Intel through a new product innovation agreement, allowing the companies to continue advancing virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) for enhanced performance and capacity.

As part of this expanded collaboration, Samsung will integrate its vRAN 3.0 software with 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost to deliver advanced vRAN solutions. Offering increased capacity, Samsung’s enhanced vRAN will be able to support more cells with the same number of servers, which would bring the benefits of power savings and cost efficiency to network operators.

Samsung and Intel have been collaborating on vRAN innovation since 2017, and the companies have already proven the performance of their integrated solutions in Tier One operators’ commercial networks in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan. In these networks, Samsung’s vRAN software integrated with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Intel’s previous generation processor) has been delivering performance optimization and power saving capabilities to operator networks.

Along with its ecosystem partners, Samsung continues to deliver advanced virtualized network solutions powered by its latest vRAN 3.0 capabilities, such as 200MHz 3-Cell support for 64T64R Massive MIMO radios, power saving features and improved automation. This paves the way for operators to deploy an exceptional and versatile RAN solution. In addition to its enhanced features, Samsung’s vRAN also supports multiple radio access technology (Multi-RAT) – across 2G, 4G and 5G – for greater flexibility in network operation.

“Intel has been a close innovation partner within Samsung’s 5G vRAN ecosystem, helping advance our goal of working with industry-leading innovators to develop and commercialize best-in-class vRAN solutions that meet the highest standards,” said Jeongho Park, Vice President and Head of Technology Strategy Group, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are excited to expand upon our collaboration with technology leaders like Intel to bring forth the next wave of vRAN enhancements – including reduced power consumption, automation and increased flexibility. This enables customers to benefit from a host of performance- and efficiency-enhancing vRAN capabilities, delivering one of the most powerful RAN solutions in the world.”

The combination of Samsung’s vRAN 3.0 and 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost will provide operators with a solution that allows them to meet their demanding capacity, coverage, quality and total cost of ownership requirements while underpinning their networks on a modern, fully virtualized architecture.

“The mobile industry is on a transformational journey toward end-to-end network virtualization,” said Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Access Networking Division at Intel. “Intel and Samsung have a long-standing collaboration with a shared commitment to deliver highly integrated, virtualized RAN solutions. This new agreement will deepen that collaboration, enabling both companies to jointly speed-up operators’ vRAN deployments at scale and to deliver a strong combination of flexibility, performance and power efficiency.”

The companies have successfully completed interoperability tests, accomplishing a first call on Samsung’s vRAN running on the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost. This enhanced vRAN offering is expected to be commercially available in the second half of 2023.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions, including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio, from vRAN 3.0, Open RAN, Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company currently provides network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Vodafone today announced their plans to accelerate 5G Open RAN expansion across Europe, beginning new open network initiatives in Germany and Spain, while enhancing Vodafone’s 5G network in the U.K.

This builds upon the two companies’ initial network collaboration, including Vodafone UK’s successful launch of the first 5G Open RAN site in Bath, U.K. in January 2022, using Samsung’s virtualized RAN (vRAN) solution. Vodafone and Samsung are proving stable performance and capacity in Vodafone UK’s commercial network, exceeding targeted performance level and power savings in its strategic Open RAN sites (also known as its ‘Golden Cluster’), located in Exmouth and Torquay, England.

“As we grow and scale our network, we are excited to jointly drive collaborative Open RAN innovation and continue our ground-breaking work together with Samsung,” said Santiago Tenorio, Director of Network Architecture for Vodafone. “We look forward to continue bringing fundamental improvements to our wide-scale next-generation network, to further accelerate our open network approach for 5G expansion across Europe.”

New Europe 5G Initiatives

Building on their collaborative advancements, the two companies continue to grow their Open RAN footprint in Europe. New developments and projects include:

• In the U.K.: The companies implemented Samsung’s O-RAN compliant Massive MIMO radios in Vodafone UK’s commercial network, efficiently expanding 5G coverage in the U.K. With this, Samsung’s 64T64R Massive MIMO radios are now successfully integrated with 5G vRAN, carrying commercial data traffic. Recently, the companies also completed a data call using Samsung’s vRAN and NEC’s Massive MIMO radio, demonstrating multi-vendor interoperability for Vodafone’s commercial network. This illustrates how Open RAN technology can enable multi-vendor integration of vRAN, not only with single-band radios but also with more complex Massive MIMO radios.

• In Germany: Vodafone will carry out comprehensive pilot projects for Open RAN using Samsung’s 2G/4G vRAN and O-RAN compliant radio solutions. In these commercial pilots announced in October 2022, Vodafone will use Samsung’s mature solutions—proven in large-scale commercial networks—to demonstrate outstanding performance, stability and reliability.

• In Spain: Samsung joined Vodafone’s testbed in Ciudad Real, which was created to benchmark mature RAN providers and compare performance across both traditional and Open RAN. Samsung will deploy its Massive MIMO radios and 4G/5G vRAN in CREATE (Ciudad Real España Advanced Testing Environment) to evaluate and verify their performance in Spain’s urban environment.

“Samsung’s virtualized Open RAN solutions are successfully running in Vodafone’s commercial network in the U.K., delivering performance on par with traditional mobile radio networks, and providing Vodafone with an agile network on which to deploy new services and features,” said Thomas Riedel, Head of Samsung Networks Europe. “Vodafone has been a pioneer in the Open RAN space and they continue to break new grounds. We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Vodafone by extending our capabilities across Europe, and taking vRAN innovation to the next level.”

Continuing to claim deployment milestones, the two companies remain as strong partners in leading 5G Open vRAN innovation. Vodafone and Samsung are collaborating with other Open RAN leaders, to drive acceleration of Open RAN with wider diversity and multi-vendor, open architecture.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced enhancements to its Samsung Cloud Orchestrator (SCO)—a solution that automates the lifecycle management of large-scale virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRAN). SCO streamlines the onboarding, deployment and operation processes, making it easier for operators to manage hundreds to thousands of cell sites from a unified platform.

The SCO now supports automation of vRAN deployments on both private and public clouds, enabling network services to be provisioned across multiple cloud environments, and this multi-cloud capability offers a highly flexible scaling option for operators, tailored to various deployment scenarios.

Samsung delivered SCO for virtualized RAN to Tier One operators in Asia, Europe and North America, leveraging the solution to bring greater efficiencies to their network deployment and operation.

“Automation adds incredible value for operators who are rapidly shifting to software-centric networks. With our enhanced Samsung Cloud Orchestrator, operators have a necessary platform to deploy and manage their vRAN with maximum efficiency and greater flexibility,” said June Moon, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “This is part of Samsung’s goal to leverage our wide-scale commercial vRAN deployment experience to develop and introduce intuitive tools that take vRAN to the next level.”

For virtualized and Open RAN network operators, SCO enables them to simplify manually intensive tasks from the very start of network creation. It is an integrated automation platform that supports end-to-end process coordination through a centralized portal, where users can view and control the status of their network in one unified platform.

The key process-improving capabilities delivered by SCO include the following:

• Onboarding: Operators can leverage this solution to prepare packages to be installed at each site and automatically perform deployment tasks on a scheduled basis. This allows operators to easily implement their own CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment) environment. It verifies package version and file formats and automatically checks for missing components in the package.
• Deployment: Operators can distribute numerous vRAN software packages and containers needed to launch large groups of cell sites with one click from a centralized location—reducing the overall deployment time. It also helps simplify the configuration process of each cell site through centralized management of tasks.
• Operation: SCO can provide automatic vRAN software upgrades, healing and scaling, to ensure the resilience of each network, enabling operators to maintain optimal network conditions by performing these tasks remotely on a massive scale.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios, and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

Samsung Electronics announced that its fully-virtualized 5G RAN technology was awarded CTO Choice: Outstanding Mobile Technology Award – the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough at the annual Global Mobile (GLOMO) Awards at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2022. Samsung’s vRAN solution offers an advanced option for mobile operators seeking improved efficiencies and management benefits to deploy a software-based 5G network infrastructure.

The CTO’s Choice Award is selected by a panel of industry experts comprised of 21 CTOs from leading mobile network operators around the globe. Chosen among the six winners in the Best Mobile Technology category—recognizing distinguished leaders in networks and technology—this is the highest recognition at the prestigious industry awards and a top honor in the global telco industry.

“We are honored that Samsung Networks’ fully-virtualized 5G RAN was recognized as the supreme champion with the CTO’s Choice Award, representing our dedicated efforts in network advancement,” said Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung believes vRAN is a powerful enabler for network transformation and will pave the path towards next-generation networks. As a global leader in virtualization with successful commercialization experiences, we continue to lead the journey, redefining what is possible for 5G network innovation.”

“In one of the most fiercely contested categories in the GLOMOs, the judges felt that the Samsung entry showed innovation in one of the most exciting parts of the market,” said Shaun Collins, Chair of the Judges, GLOMO Awards (Executive Chairman, CCS Insight). “It was clear the 21 carrier CTOs also thought that and selected Samsung’s entry for the prestigious CTO Choice Award this year.”

This award is backed by Samsung’s commercial track record of vRAN deployments in wide-scale in North America, Europe and Asia. Samsung delivered its 5G vRAN solution for a large-scale commercial network service in the United States that launched in December 2020, providing reliable mobile services to millions of users. The company was also the world’s first in commercializing 5G 64T64R Massive MIMO radios on 5G vRAN using C-band spectrum (3.5GHz).

With a fully disaggregated architecture, Samsung’s vRAN runs on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, offering features and performance that are equivalent to traditional hardware-based equipment. The company’s vRAN brings reliability, scalability and flexibility to mobile operators’ networks.

For detailed information on Samsung’s vRAN and Open RAN leadership, please refer to the recent announcement.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios, and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

Samsung Electronics released the second edition of its private 5G networks whitepaper, highlighting the architectures, features and benefits of private 5G networks for industrial scenarios—such as smart factories, smart hospitals, and smart logistics and transportation, among others.

With the growing interest in private networks, Samsung explores how enterprises can successfully deploy private 5G networks to meet business goals and service demands. The whitepaper outlines various architectural options for building private networks that enable 5G services—such as Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) and Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC)—which can bring new innovation to a range of sectors rapidly transitioning to Industry 4.0.

The paper spotlights Samsung’s complete set of private 5G network solutions which enable enterprises to simplify network deployment and operation. With a portfolio and capability to build highly reliable private 5G networks, Samsung offers solutions for small, medium and large-scale enterprises. Its comprehensive set of end-to-end private 5G network solutions include Radio Access Network (RAN), cores of all scale, intuitive management systems, AI/ML based analytics solutions and applications for a variety of services. Specifically, its RAN portfolio—covering low, mid and high frequency bands—consists of baseband, radios including Massive MIMO, mmWave and small cell that are fit for various business environments.

The company’s solutions are designed to satisfy the high demands private networks face in ensuring the highest levels of performance and reliability as well as low latency—which are required to power advanced use cases such as remote factory monitoring, virtual education, AR/VR, drones and autonomous vehicles.

For more details on Private 5G Network architecture, features and Samsung’s end-to-end private 5G network solutions, please refer to the new whitepaper: Private Networks Vol.2 Architectures and Features for Industrial Scenarios. For additional information on Samsung’s configuration options for its private 5G network solutions, please refer to the first edition: Private Networks Vol.1 Transforming Private Networks with Samsung 5G

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end infrastructure solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.