Intel, SK Telecom team for 5G vRAN power management software
Intel and SK Telecom in Korea have developed software for the latest Xeon processor that can cut the power consumption of running 5G core reference software by as much as 30%.
The Intel Infrastructure Power Manager for 5G Core reference software dynamically matches run-time server power consumption with data traffic without compromising the throughput, latency and packet drop.
The software, in tests with Casa Systems, NEC and Nokia, significantly reduces time-to-market for ISVs and operators by simplifying access to key capabilities in Intel’s 3rd and 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processors, including power telemetry, granular power control states and low-latency frequency change.
The software can run on the fourth generation Xeon Scalable processors that include vRAN boost hardware, providing twice the performance as the previous processors in the same power envelope and up to an additional 20% power savings.
This is achieved by fully integrating vRAN acceleration into the Intel Xeon system-on-chip (SoC) and eliminating the need for an external accelerator card. Intel says this will match or better the performance-per-watt of the best Layer 1 SoC accelerator cards in the market today, while delivering the benefits of software-defined, virtualized networks running in any data centre without needing specific accelerator cards.
It also demonstrated the first 1Tbit/s 5G user plane function (UPF) workload performance on the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week..
“Intel powers the world’s clouds, networks and enterprises, giving us unique insight on where to place compute and acceleration along the entire cloud-to-edge continuum and helping our customers scale to meet user demands,” said Sachin Katti, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Network and Edge Group.
“The advancements we’ve made in our 4th Gen Intel Xeon platforms to double vRAN performance while staying within the same power envelope, to nearly doubling the 5G core UPF throughput, and to speed the deployment of a wide range of network, security and enterprise edge services, makes Intel the platform for our customers to modernize and monetize their networks of the future, today.”
The first release of the power management software has been developed for runtime power savings for the user plane. Future releases are planned with additional power management capabilities and control plane support.
The Xeon processor is being used by Advantech, Capgemini, Canonical, Dell Technologies, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Mavenir, Quanta Cloud Technology, Rakuten Mobile, Red Hat, SuperMicro, Telefonica, Verizon, VMware, Vodafone and Wind River.
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
