The shift towards open and virtualized networks in 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) continues to gain momentum among Communication Service Providers (CSPs). Systems based on vRAN and OpenRAN also offer a pathway towards cloud-native technology and vendor flexibility compared to traditional RAN. Consequently, it’s no surprise that more industry leaders, including AMD, are offering solutions to support today’s open and virtualized 5G networks.
AMD is also focused on the future of telecommunications and will return to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 26 to 28 to showcase numerous examples, such as 5G Advanced and 6G with AI. This year, AMD will also feature additional ecosystem software partners and solution blocks demonstrating their developments at the AMD booth in Hall 2, Stand 2M61.
Laying the vRAN Leadership Foundation with Samsung
AMD and Samsung continue their collaboration in telecommunications. This time, they are working together on virtualized RAN solutions powered by AMD EPYC™ processors, as recently demonstrated when Samsung and Vodafone completed an end-to-end call using AMD EPYC CPUs to power Samsung’s Open RAN technology. This effort represented the joint companies’ push to deliver an enhanced Open RAN ecosystem and high-performance solutions for the telecommunications industry.
Expanding Open RAN Adoption
Parallel Wireless, a leader in telecommunications innovation, recently announced that their GreenRAN™ software platform is now fully CPU-agnostic. In the same press release, the company also announced a collaboration with AMD, leveraging the AMD EPYC Series 8004 processors to revolutionize their Open RAN solutions. This showcased Parallel Wireless’ unique multi-platform capabilities alongside AMD’s performance per watt leadership. With a long history of open standards-based solutions, AMD will continue to support, along with key ecosystem partners, the adoption of Open RAN standards for a more diverse telecommunications environment.
Breaking New Ground in Telecommunications with 5G and Compute Innovation
AMD EPYC 4th gen processors are used by Ericsson and Telstra to deliver energy efficiency and modernization in innovative 5G core functions. Powering Ericsson’s Cloud Native Infrastructure Solution (CNIS), in combination with Ericsson’s Packet Core Gateway and Packet Core Controller solutions, AMD EPYC CPUs offered up to 49% lower power consumption, according to Ericsson.
Napatech and A5G announced a high-performance, energy-efficient computing platform for 5G networks. The A5G-Napatech platform is powered by AMD EPYC 8004 Series CPUs, designed to meet the demands of modern telecommunications EDGE deployments with high performance and impressive energy efficiency. Additionally, Napatech’s SmartNIC, based on an AMD Virtex™ UltraScale+™ VU9P FPGA, offloads data traffic from the AMD EPYC CPU, enabling the A5G core to deliver leading energy efficiency and cost performance for EDGE computing applications. A5G Networks also announced a leading industry performance of 1.5 Tbps for the 5G UPF core, leveraging AMD EPYC 4th gen CPUs. This significant achievement offers impressive performance at a time of growing bandwidth demand in 5G networks.
Dell Technologies recently introduced support for AMD EPYC 9654P and EPYC 9754 CPUs in the PowerEdge R7615, featuring NEBS level 3 certification for deployments in demanding telco environments. According to Dell, the PowerEdge R7615 simplifies cloud core deployments by providing the most dense telco cloud core solution currently available on the market, all with a single AMD EPYC CPU per server.
As AMD prepares for MWC 2024, they’re also celebrating the second anniversary of their acquisition of Xilinx. The combination continues to reveal significant synergies as AMD advances their position in telecommunications and networks, expanding their product portfolio from 5G network processors to telecommunications accelerators and adaptive computing System-on-Chips (SoC) for wireless infrastructure.
AMD Demonstrations at MWC 2024 – Hall 2, Stand 2M61
Integrated 5G Advanced and 6G AI in the Same Device
Advanced 5G and 6G wireless communication systems require intensive signal processing and novel AI algorithms, which need to be implemented in the same device and AI engine to meet latency and performance requirements. This demonstration showcases the low-PHY of a 400 MHz 8T8R radio operating alongside an image classifier based on ResNet.
AMD’s Adaptive 5G vRAN
AMD, along with SRS, VIAVI Solutions, SuperMicro, and iCana, will offer an end-to-end O-RAN demonstration using AMD chips for both radio and vRAN. SRS has implemented a complete vRAN software solution on a SuperMicro IoT A+ AMD EPYC™ 8004-optimized server for Telco applications. The radio (O-RU) is based on Zynq RFSoC DFE and utilizes the evaluation technology on a ZCU670 board alongside an iCana RF Front End. E2E testing is handled by VIAVI, utilizing the TM500 network tester for UE Emulation and TeraVM Core Emulator.
Parallel Wireless GreenRAN™ 5G on AMD EPYC 8004 Series Processors
Parallel Wireless deployed the GreenRAN™ 5G DU software on an AMD EPYC™ 8004 Series processor. Parallel Wireless’ deployment offers ease of integration through the use of AMD EPYC Series 8004 for the complete RAN stack, as well as the AMD T2 Telco Accelerator card as an FEC accelerator. The solution demonstration includes the expected energy efficiency of AMD EPYC Series 8004, delivering a 20-50% performance improvement over current solutions.
IA Monetization through Operators
Operators need to accelerate their public and private 5G networks to monetize them. AI offers a way to achieve this by deploying rich, value-added services and applications. This demonstration showcases real-time multi-channel detection and classification of actions and objects for consumer, retail, and smart city applications.
About AMD
For over 50 years, AMD has been driving innovation in high-performance computing, graphics, and visualization technologies. Billions of people, Fortune 500 leading companies, and cutting-edge scientific research institutions worldwide rely on AMD’s technology daily to enhance their way of living, working, and playing. AMD employees are focused on creating leading, high-performance, and adaptable products that push the boundaries of what’s possible.