Samsung Achieves Another Industry-First Virtualized RAN Milestone, Accelerating AI-Native, 6G-Ready Networks

Samsung Electronics today announced that the company has successfully completed the industry’s first commercial call utilizing Samsung’s virtualized RAN (vRAN) solution with the Intel¹ Xeon 6700P-B processor series, with up to 72 cores, on a Tier 1 U.S. operator’s live network. This builds upon the company’s previous achievement in 2024, when it completed the industry-first end-to-end call in a lab environment with Intel Xeon 6 SoC.

Samsung has been pushing the boundaries of network virtualization, offering operators exceptional performance and reliability. This accomplishment marks a significant milestone, validating that Samsung’s vRAN is the optimal platform for operators to build AI-native, 6G-ready networks by fully leveraging the power of the cutting-edge processor technology.

Conducted on a Tier 1 U.S. operator’s commercial network, Samsung’s cloud-native vRAN with Intel’s latest Xeon SoC ran on a single commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) server from Hewlett Packard Enterprise with a cloud platform from Wind River. This milestone, coming only a few months after the first wave of Intel Xeon 6 SoC was made commercially available, presents an innovative pathway for single-server vRAN deployments for next-generation networks.

As operators accelerate their transition to software-driven, flexible architectures while seeking more sustainable infrastructure, the ability to run RAN and AI workloads on fewer, more powerful servers becomes critical.

On a single server of Samsung’s AI-powered vRAN with enhanced processors, operators can consolidate software-driven network elements such as mobile core, radio access, transport and security, which traditionally required multiple servers, significantly simplifying the management of complex site configuration.

This innovative approach not only reduces network power consumption, capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX), but also facilitates operators’ seamless adoption of AI-RAN and AI services, accelerating their readiness for 6G through its flexibility and automation capability.

“This breakthrough represents a major leap forward in network virtualization and efficiency. It confirms the real-world readiness of this latest technology under live network conditions, demonstrating that single-server vRAN deployments can meet the stringent performance and reliability standards required by leading carriers,” said June Moon, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are not only deploying more sustainable, cost-effective networks, but also laying the foundation to fully utilize AI capabilities more easily and prepare for 6G with our end-to-end software-driven network solutions.”

Samsung’s vRAN leverages the latest Intel Xeon 6 SoC with Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions (Intel AMX), Intel vRAN Boost and up to 72 cores, delivering significant improvements in AI processing, memory bandwidth and energy efficiency compared to the previous generation.

“With Intel Xeon 6 SoC, featuring higher core counts and built-in acceleration for AI and vRAN, operators get the compute foundation for AI native, future ready networks,” said Cristina Rodriguez, VP and GM, Network & Edge, Intel. “This collaborative achievement with Samsung, HPE and Wind River enables greater consolidation of RAN and AI workloads, lowering power and total cost while speeding innovation.”

As a leader in network innovation, Samsung has been spearheading the deployment of vRAN solutions with major operators worldwide and has achieved many industry breakthroughs, including the industry’s first call on a commercial network and large-scale deployments utilizing Intel Xeon processors with Intel vRAN Boost. The company continues to push the boundaries of network virtualization, working closely with ecosystem partners like Intel to deliver solutions that help operators build networks that are more efficient and sustainable.

“This successful first call is an important milestone for the industry,” said Daryl Schoolar, Analyst and Director at Recon Analytics. “By demonstrating multiple network functions running on next-generation processing technology, Samsung is showing what future networks look like — more cloud-native, more scalable and significantly more efficient. This achievement moves the industry beyond theoretical performance gains and into practical, deployable innovation that operators around the world can leverage to modernize their networks, accelerate automation and better support AI-driven use cases.”

Samsung Networks has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions, including chipsets, radios and cores. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung is driving the industry to advance 5G networks and paving the way for 6G and beyond with its market-leading product portfolio, from purpose-built RAN, vRAN, Open RAN, AI-RAN and core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools and applications. The company currently provides innovative network solutions to mobile operators that deliver boundless connectivity to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

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