Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. said it is expanding its collaboration with Intel through a new product innovation agreement. Specifically, this would allow them 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. Specifically, Samsung’s enhanced vRAN offers increased capacity, supporting more cells with the same number of servers. Consequently, this would bring the benefits of power savings and cost efficiency to network operators.

Samsung and Intel have been collaborating on vRAN innovation since 2017. The performance of their solutions has been proven in Tier One operators’ commercial networks in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. In these networks, Samsung’s vRAN software integrated with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors 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. These include 200MHz 3-Cell support for 64T64R Massive MIMO radios, power-saving features, and improved automation. Accordingly, 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 across 2G, 4G and 5G. This allows

“Intel has been a close innovation partner within Samsung’s 5G vRAN ecosystem. It helps 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. These include reduced power consumption, automation and increased flexibility. This enables customers to benefit from a host of performance- and efficiency-enhancing vRAN capabilities; thus delivering one of the most powerful RAN solutions in the world.”

Specifically, 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. These are achieved 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. It would enable them to jointly speed-up operators’ vRAN deployments at scale. Also, it will deliver a strong combination of flexibility, performance and power efficiency.”

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