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. announced the company is bringing next-level capabilities to its virtualized RAN (vRAN) to improve performance and increase power savings. The advanced vRAN software will boast a range of new “smart” features—optimized to address the needs of forward-looking operators. These include advanced capabilities that will help pave the path towards the next phase of network virtualization, including features that increase bandwidth support of Massive MIMO radios, analyze hourly traffic patterns to optimize network operating conditions, and automate networks with ‘sleep mode’ to save energy consumption.

A leader in the vRAN market, Samsung has been contributing to the earliest massive commercial adoption of 5G virtualized networks across the world. The company has been the only major vendor that has conducted large-scale commercial vRAN deployments with Tier One operators on multiple continents—in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

“While Samsung’s 5G vRAN has successfully proven its performance by delivering results on par with traditional hardware-based equipment in commercial networks, we are moving fast into the next phase of vRAN software development—Samsung’s vRAN 3.0,” said Ji-Yun Seol, Vice President, Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “The software-centric nature of the solution allows us to add these enhanced capabilities—performance optimization and energy efficiency—much faster than traditional RAN hardware. Samsung’s newest features will add tremendous value to operators rapidly shifting to virtualized networks.”

Samsung’s next-level vRAN capabilities include the following:

Performance Optimization

• 200MHz 3 Cell Support
  With a software upgrade, Samsung’s vRAN will be equipped with the ability to provide 3 Cell configuration with 200MHz of bandwidth support using its 64T64R Massive MIMO radios. This is more than triple the radio bandwidth support when compared to its previous generation software, capable of supporting an operator’s entire mid-band 5G spectrum holdings.
• Modem Algorithm Optimization
  Samsung is incorporating a modem algorithm optimization approach to its development roadmap. Unlike a hardware-centric approach, modem algorithm optimization enables operators to receive software tailored to their needs, with only the required features and configurations, allowing for an optimized and efficient use of COTS servers.

Power Savings

• CPU Core Sleep Mode
  Available on Samsung’s vRAN software, this feature reduces power consumption by automatically putting the CPU in “sleep mode”—or turning off unused CPU Cores—during periods of low data traffic. When capacity demand increases again, CPU Cores exit sleep mode.
• Adaptive Core Allocation
  This feature of Samsung’s vRAN software assigns a number of CPU Cores at cell setup proportional to the number of active cells. Unassigned or unused CPU Cores are set to idle mode to reduce power consumption and are activated when capacity demand increases.
• Energy Saving Feature Orchestrator (ESFO)
  ESFO is an orchestration tool that manages multiple energy saving features in one platform, optimizing efficiency with no service interruption. ESFO automatically analyzes hourly traffic patterns and optimizes the operating conditions of each Energy Saving feature, per sector and time zone. The tool constantly updates the multi-level Energy Saving operations of multiple power saving features—such as cell on/off and Tx path on/off—to reflect traffic pattern changes and prior results.

With these enhanced capabilities, Samsung’s vRAN can support smarter management and operation of wide-scale commercial virtualized networks, as more operators seek to meet the next-generation network demands of their customers. Samsung plans to launch its new vRAN capabilities to global operators, beginning its rollout in North America in the first 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 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.