▲ Dr. Younsun Kim, Master at Samsung Research

Samsung Electronics today announced that it has secured a leadership position at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the world’s largest telecommunications standard development organization.

During the plenary meeting held in Incheon on March 12, Dr. Younsun Kim, Master at Samsung Research, Samsung Electronics, was elected as Chair of 3GPP Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network (TSG RAN),¹ which is responsible for standardizing all aspects of wireless technology, such as the physical layer, protocol aspects and radio resource control.

“I believe that my election as chair is further recognition of Samsung’s leadership in mobile communication technology,” said Dr. Kim. “6G standardization involves more than just solving technical issues; it is a collaborative effort requiring participation from all companies and organizations in the mobile communication sector. I will make every effort to successfully lead 3GPP’s TSG RAN and advance the standardization of 6G.”

Since its establishment in 1998, 3GPP has led the development of global mobile communication technology standards with participation from major telecommunications companies and organizations worldwide, including Samsung, Apple, Qualcomm, Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia.

In May 2021, Dr. Kim was elected Chair of 3GPP Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1), which is the largest working group within 3GPP and responsible for developing physical layer specifications for 3GPP radio access technologies. Over the past four years, Dr. Kim has successfully led the standardization of 5G physical layer technology, significantly contributing to the emergence of the 5G network industry.

Through Dr. Kim’s expanded role as Chair of 3GPP TSG RAN starting in May, Samsung will be able to contribute to the standardization of 6G, the next generation of mobile communication technology.

Dr. Kim’s appointment to the chair position of the Technical Specification Group is viewed as a recognition of Samsung’s contributions and technological leadership in the mobile communication industry.

The company currently holds two chair positions in RAN WG1 and SA WG2, as well as four vice-chair positions in RAN WG2, SA WG4, SA WG6 and CT WG3. With Dr. Kim’s election as Chair of 3GPP TSG RAN, Samsung Electronics will maintain the industry’s highest number of chair positions within 3GPP, even after the RAN WG1 chair term expires, solidifying its pivotal role among over 800 member companies.

The advancement of mobile communication systems is now at a turning point. It must not only enhance transmission speeds but also drive 6G standardization with a focus on new values. 3GPP plans to launch research on 6G in the second half of this year.

6G aims to achieve future-oriented and sustainable advancements in mobile communication technology, including improving the energy efficiency of networks, enhancing network quality using AI and introducing security technologies to prevent attacks originating from quantum computers. At this critical milestone, Dr. Kim’s election as chair by the support from international mobile communication standards experts holds great significance.

Meanwhile, Samsung recently published a 6G White Paper titled, “AI-Native & Sustainable Communication” that outlines the latest trends and future of next-generation mobile communication technologies. It also highlights Samsung’s leadership in 6G research and other key technologies.

With its leadership in next-generation communication technology and Dr. Younsun Kim’s role as Chair of 3GPP, Samsung is expected to lead the standardization of 6G technology and make significant contributions to the advancement of the mobile communication industry overall.

¹ The 3GPP comprises three Technical Specification Groups (TSGs): Radio Access Network (RAN), Service and System Aspects (SA), and Core Network and Terminals (CT). Each TSG consists of 4–6 Working Groups (WGs), for a total of 15 working groups.

Samsung Electronics today announced that the company has been selected by KDDI as a main vendor to provide 4G and 5G O-RAN compliant virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) solutions for their Open RAN deployment in Japan. In line with KDDI’s vision to adopt leading-edge network technology, the companies will expand the reach of Open RAN in the coming years.

Starting from 2025, KDDI will expand its Open RAN deployment leveraging the advantages of a fully disaggregated and software-based architecture powered by Samsung vRAN. KDDI’s Open RAN network will feature enhanced capabilities for improved energy efficiency, optimized performance and intelligent automation.

“KDDI has been focused on identifying and preparing for next-generation networks, and we have been conducting numerous technical verification and feasibility studies on Open RAN with industry-leading companies like Samsung,” said Kazuyuki Yoshimura, Chief Technology Officer of KDDI. “Today’s announcement represents KDDI’s dedication to bringing innovative technologies to Japan. We are proud to deliver a cutting-edge and reliable radio access network.”

“With our unwavering innovative spirit, Samsung continuously takes the initiative to develop and adopt the latest mobile technologies. Together with KDDI, we are thrilled to take this significant step and strengthen our presence in Japan,” said Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are committed to supporting KDDI’s trailblazing journey toward network excellence by providing best-in-class solutions that exceed their quality standards.”

For this expanded collaboration, Samsung is bringing its comprehensive network solutions ranging from its vRAN 3.0 solution, a full suite of O-RAN compliant radios supporting low- and mid-bands including advanced Massive MIMO radios and third-party radio integration support. It also offers key features of the Samsung CognitiV Networks Operations Suite (NOS), an intelligent solution that automates the life cycle management of large-scale vRAN buildouts. The features streamline the onboarding, deployment and operation processes, enabling KDDI to transform its widespread network efficiently.

Samsung is enriching KDDI’s network deployment by leveraging its robust ecosystem that consists of industry-leading partners and their solutions. The deployment will be carried out in close collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (servers), Intel (processors) and Red Hat (cloud platform).

KDDI and Samsung have been collaborating on vRAN and Open RAN since 2021. Over the years, the companies have solidified their global leadership in the emerging Open RAN and vRAN space, achieving milestones such as the world’s first commercial 5G Standalone Open RAN site in the Greater Tokyo area, and launching commercial Open RAN sites in Osaka. Samsung’s extensive expertise — derived from real-world rollout experience at scale — underpins this Open RAN deployment.

Since unveiling its fully virtualized 5G RAN in 2020, Samsung has consistently been recognized as the leading Open RAN and vRAN vendor by global analyst firms like Omdia and Dell’Oro.

“Open RAN and vRAN are at the heart of mobile networks innovation and transformation and Samsung has continuously demonstrated its leadership in this space,” said Rémy Pascal, Principal Analyst Mobile infrastructure at Omdia. “These technologies have been thoroughly tested, and KDDI’s Open vRAN expansion powered by Samsung will not only enable KDDI to continue delivering first-rate services to Japanese customers and meet their evolving needs but also build a more efficient, automated and future-ready network.”

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions, including chipsets, radios and cores. 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 innovative network solutions to mobile operators that deliver boundless connectivity to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

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.

The evolution of mobile network technology has changed our lives gradually and dramatically. Such progress has seeped into our everyday lives and changed the way we communicate, spend our free time, and how we work.

Until the year 2010, communication was mostly voice and text-based. Over the past 13 years, we’ve seen consistent technology advancements from 4G to 5G and beyond, and we’re now able to enjoy ultra-high-definition, large-capacity multimedia content, anytime, anywhere.

Mobile network technology has redefined the cultural landscape of connections at all levels — between people to people, business to business and industry to industry.

Software Is at the Heart of Mobile Network Evolution, Moving Toward Virtualization

At Samsung, we have been focused on identifying the key technology that will drive mobile network transformation and we think the answer is software.

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen once said, “software is eating the world.” Just like this famous phrase, global industries are being ‘eaten’ by software and this dynamic transition is called ‘virtualization’ in the network infrastructure world. Whereas hardware is the foundation for traditional networks, virtualization is all about shifting to software.

Virtualization lets you transform many hardware functions and features into software, allowing various services to run on a single hardware platform. Simply put, it works similar to downloading and regularly updating a range of apps on your smartphone.

vRAN Will Eat up the Network Infrastructure World

Samsung has been spearheading the shift toward network virtualization and openness. We introduced the first fully virtualized Radio Access Network also known as vRAN. Although vRAN currently accounts for just 3 percent¹ of the global RAN market, it is a pioneering technology that the industry is watching closely.

Samsung has been a forerunner in the innovative path to vRAN, proving our outstanding performance and wide-scale commercialization capabilities in the real-world, leading expansion in major 5G markets, including Asia, Europe and North America.

We supported the largest-scale commercial vRAN for the first time in the world with Verizon in 2020, and since then, have been providing stable and reliable 5G services to millions of customers. We also began our collaboration with DISH Wireless and Vodafone Group, actively expanding our vRAN footprint to new markets, including the U.K., Germany and beyond.

With the innovations that we are bringing to virtualization, we are creating the blueprint for next-generation networks. We are not only committed to advancing our technology, but more importantly, onboarding and growing the best software talents, which we believe is a central pillar to our achievements.

Samsung Networks Chipset: Packaging the Essence of Our Innovation and Technological Capabilities

The power of chipsets not only radiates through hardware-based networks, but also in software-centric virtualized architectures. While most functions and features are being turned into software, there are still integral parts of the network that remain as hardware. Therefore, the ability to pack advanced features into a tiny chipset is one of our invaluable asset.

Our competitive advantage stems from our unique combination of expertise in innovative software solutions and our comprehensive portfolio of hardware combined with our 5G network chipsets.

Samsung is the only major network vendor that has the capability to design, develop and manufacture 4G and 5G network chipsets in-house.

With the rising market demand for higher energy efficiency, as well as support for complex spectrum bands and reduced hardware footprint, there has been a stronger emphasis on chipset technologies.

Compared to previous generations, our latest 5G chipset reduces base station energy consumption by about 40 percent and antenna size by nearly half compared to previous products, and also includes support for multiple spectrum bands.

With a strong foundation built on over 40 years of experience in network technologies, we have managed to stay ahead of evolving market demands, introducing a compact and lightweight radio with high performance and energy efficiency.

Building a Better Tomorrow With Energy Savings Technology

The true value of innovation is not just about advancing technology, but it’s also about pursuing a better tomorrow. Ranging from software to AI and chipsets, sustainability has always been at the core of our product development strategy. Bringing our sustainability vision to life, we are introducing our newest energy saving features for vRAN at MWC this year.

As legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky once said, “a good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”

As we continue along our exciting journey, Samsung will always think a step ahead, anticipating future needs of our customers. And, as a pioneer in the mobile network industry, Samsung will continue to drive this paradigm shift by jumpstarting the next wave of unforeseen innovation.

¹ Source: Dell’Oro (3Q, 2022)

Powered by Samsung’s vRAN, KDDI’s 5G network will deliver exceptional performance, enabling KDDI users to experience the full potential of 5G.

“We are delighted to extend our collaboration with Samsung and to become the first operator in Japan to use their 5G vRAN solutions, which are currently delivering superior performance in commercial networks,” said Kazuyuki Yoshimura, Chief Technology Officer of KDDI. “We believe in the power of virtualization, and this collaboration serves as a meaningful catalyst for driving the next phase of 5G innovation, and advancing our networks to offer best-in-class 5G services.”

With its latest 5G vRAN technology, Samsung brings a range of improvements to KDDI’s network. By replacing dedicated baseband hardware with software elements, vRAN offers more deployment flexibility, greater scalability and improved resource efficiency in network operation. With its cloud-native, container-based architecture, Samsung’s vRAN also simplifies end-to-end network management through automation, allowing operators to quickly introduce new services with minimal impact on deployment.

“With commercially-proven performance and reliability, our vRAN is an attractive technology option for operators — from both the deployment and operational perspectives,” said Woojune Kim, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are excited to mark another milestone with KDDI, following previous network collaborations that include the commercialization of 5G in 2020, and the rollout of 700MHz 5G in 2021. We look forward to our ongoing work with KDDI to bring new 5G innovations to their customers.”

Virtualized networks will play a key role in supporting KDDI’s pursuit of new 5G use cases and next-generation capabilities. Last year, for instance, Samsung and KDDI demonstrated how 5G end-to-end network slicing could play a key role for mobile operators by enabling the creation of multiple virtual networks within a single physical network infrastructure.

Samsung and KDDI will begin trials in Q1 of 2022, and start commercial deployment in the second half of 2022.

Leading vRAN Innovation

Samsung has been at the forefront of vRAN leadership around the world, unveiling its fully virtualized 5G RAN in 2020, followed by successful commercialization with a Tier 1 operator in the U.S. In June 2021, the company was selected by a major European operator to bring vRAN to the U.K.

Samsung recently demonstrated its vRAN capability to support Massive MIMO radios on mid-band, reaching multi-gigabit speeds. The company also teamed with a Tier 1 U.S. operator to complete an end-to-end 5G vRAN trial over C-Band in a live network environment, demonstrating vRAN performance equal to that of traditional hardware-based equipment.

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.

Topics covered during the event included Samsung’s 5G vision and latest network innovations; its industry leading virtualized solutions to bring innovation for mobile operators and enterprises; its new range of chipsets to be embedded in the Samsung’s next generation 5G solutions; and the company’s complete lineup of private network solutions to transform industries.

Check out some highlights from the event below.

At the event, Samsung Networks highlighted key developments in its global expansion, which includes delivery of over four million 5G-ready radios around the world. Samsung focused on how it is advancing virtualization to drive next-generation networks, and leading 5G radio innovation by embedding its radios with the company’s latest in-house chipsets.

“We are delighted to discuss the infinite possibilities of wireless technology, as we continue our 5G journey, and pave the way towards the next phase of 5G,” said Paul (Kyungwhoon) Cheun, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung’s 5G vision includes bringing together the best global expertise and technical insights that can help operators and consumers take full advantage of 5G benefits. We’re grateful that our customers and partners have joined us on this journey, and look forward to achieving many more 5G milestones together.”

The following are key areas of advancement that Samsung Networks leadership covered at the virtual event:

Virtualization

Virtualization of an entire network from Radio Access Network (RAN) to Core will offer multiple benefits to operators, bringing greater efficiency, scalability and flexibility in network management, as well as easier upgrades through software implementations. Recent vRAN accomplishments include the following solutions:

• Samsung vRAN has virtualized all elements of a baseband unit. Backed by years of R&D, Samsung deployed the industry’s first fully-virtualized commercial 5G RAN delivered end-to-end (Link). Recently, the company demonstrated the capability to support multi-gigabit speeds of Massive MIMO radios on COTS servers (Link), showing how the performance of vRAN technology is now near the performance of custom hardware solutions.

• Samsung vCore is built with a cloud-native containerized architecture, enabling operational automation while ensuring optimized performance. With high adaptability and scalability, Samsung 5G vCore allows network operators to quickly launch new services and upgrade per business needs. Since introducing its first virtualized Core in 2015, the company has successfully commercialized the world’s first 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) vCore, and achieved a significant milestone in data processing capacity on its 5G Standalone (SA) Core (Link).

• Network management solutions help optimize operational efficiencies in virtualized networks. Samsung Cloud Orchestration, known as SCO, coordinates an entirely automated process of network deployment and optimization. Samsung’s Network Slice Manager supports simplified management of slice resources, while AI-based analytics provides intelligent analysis of network performance.

5G Radios

Samsung has been pioneering 5G technology to support RAN solutions for more than a decade, through research, standardization and commercial rollouts of its highly competitive 5G solutions. New developments are:

• In-House Chipsets: Samsung continues its leadership in chipset research and development, with an expanded line-up of new chipsets, including a 3^rd generation RFIC, 2^nd generation 5G modem and DFE-RFIC integrated chip (Link), part of the company’s initiative to help foster compact and efficient, yet high-performing 5G solutions.

• New Solutions: Samsung continues to expand its 5G radio lineup. The company recently unveiled its wideband radio (Link) supporting 400MHz of bandwidth in mid-band, and designed to help operators drive more flexible and cost-effective deployments. Also introduced are the next generation 5G Compact Macro and baseband units, as well as its new One Antenna Radio (Link), a solution that delivers a more compact form factor with antenna integration, offering simplified installation and deployment efficiencies.

Private Networks

Samsung has the capability to build reliable and secure private networks, leveraging its comprehensive solutions portfolio. The company’s industry-leading 5G solutions offer a resilient backbone to private 5G networks, introducing use cases such as smart factories (Link) and a real-time 4K video monitoring system (Link). Samsung also provides end-to-end PS-LTE solutions, from network equipment to applications and devices. The company is powering the world’s first 3GPP-compliant nationwide PS-LTE network in Korea (Link), and accomplished the demonstration of the industry’s first MCPTX video call on a cloud platform (Link).

6G Future Vision

As part of its networks overview, Samsung Networks: Redefined shares Samsung’s vision of 6G technology, and the world it will help create. Samsung stays ahead in preparing for new generations of wireless technologies. The company led 5G research and development even before 4G deployments, and is already preparing for 6G. Now, the company is set to accelerate 6G innovation, bringing hyper-connected experiences to users (Link). Samsung recently explored the potential of the Terahertz (THz) spectrum application for 6G wireless communications, demonstrating an end-to-end 140GHz wireless link using a fully digital beamforming solution (Link).

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.

As operators continue to extend their 5G coverage, a key challenge they face is the space and footprint restrictions at sites and on towers. Samsung’s all-in-one radio will address varied environmental and site demands–easing installation, saving space and reducing OPEX for operators. The new solution will become part of Samsung’s Radio Access Network (RAN) portfolio in early 2022, initially targeting the European market.

Key benefits of Samsung’s One Antenna Radio are:

• Site Simplification: The streamlined solution uses compact hardware to blend into a municipality’s environment, and reduces cabling and hardware elements to minimize visual impact in dense urban areas.
• Simplified Installation: Deployment is made simple by eliminating the need to install and connect radios and multiple antennas separately, accelerating installation and reducing labor costs.
• OPEX Savings: By requiring less space on sites or towers, and with a smaller footprint, operators can save on expenses, including rental and maintenance costs.

“We are proud to introduce our One Antenna Radio to provide industry-leading performance that’s designed to address various deployment environments,” said Wonil Roh, Senior Vice President and Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Recognizing that mounting hardware, cabling, crew site time and space limitations are a challenge for most operators, we created a solution to help tackle this issue, and expand deployment boundaries.”

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.

To discuss 5G wireless communications technology standards, Samsung Electronics is hosting a 3GPP* RAN1** meeting for five days in Busan, Korea. The international meeting, which commenced on April 11, brings together about 400 technology experts from 80 telecommunications businesses to begin the standardization of 5G technologies in earnest.

3GPP first began to discuss the 5G standardization schedule at the 3GPP RAN 5G Workshop held in Phoenix last September. The meeting will serve as the starting point of 3GPP’s in-depth research on 5G candidate technologies.

During this meeting, 3GPP members will discuss ways to support the effective integration of new services such as IoT (Internet of Things) into 5G, and measures to ensure the compatibility of the 5G technologies. 3GPP will conduct research in these areas until next June and plans to complete the first standardizations for 5G by June 2018.

Samsung began its development of 5G technology in 2011 and successfully carried out the world’s first Gigabit (1.2 Gbps) data transmission in the millimeter-wave band in 2013. Since then, the company has continued to prove its technology leadership in 5G by achieving the world’s first 1.2 Gbps connection in a mobile environment from a vehicle travelling at 110 kilometers per hour; the fastest 5G data transmission rate while stationary (7.5 Gbps); and the world’s first handover technology that transfers 5G mmWave data connections from one base station to another.

In addition, Samsung continues to be actively engaged in a range of key global 5G research initiatives and leads multiple collaborative projects with its industrial partners, academic partners and operators around the world. Holding 17 percent of the total LTE and LTE-Advanced standard-essential patents (SEP), Samsung ranks at the top of 35 major telecommunications businesses. (Source: “2014 Results of Research on Telecom Technology Patent Trends and Patent Litigation Analysis,” Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), April 2015.)

*3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) is the world’s most influential project to standardize telecommunications technologies.

**As one of the core tech groups in 3GPP, RAN (Radio Access Network) is in charge of terminal-base station interface standards.