MWC 2023: Intel accelerates 5G leadership with new products

Intel announced the availability of new products and solutions for telecom operators and mobile network suppliers at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in Barcelona.
Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost
“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 throughput5, and to speed the deployment of a range of network, security and enterprise edge services, makes Intel the platform for our customers to modernize and monetize their networks,” Sachin Katti, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Network and Edge Group, said.

Intel’s 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost is delivering 2x the capacity gains gen over gen within the same power envelope and up to an additional 20 percent power savings with acceleration, which is above and beyond the 4th Gen Intel Xeon platform’s performance-per-watt gain.

Intel expects 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost 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.

Intel demonstrated 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors now enable the industry’s first 1 Tbps of performance for the 5G UPF workload within a single dual-socket server, further validated by Samsung. This will further assist network operators in modernizing their networks, reducing their total cost of ownership (TCO) at the 5G core

The new Intel Infrastructure Power Manager for 5G Core reference software dynamically matches run-time server power consumption with data traffic without compromising key performance indicators such as 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.

Operators can use the reference software to reduce network TCO and accelerate progress toward net zero emissions goals, realizing millions of dollars in savings and a significant amount of CO2 emissions offset.

Intel has showcased the Intel Converged Edge Media Platform, which delivers multiple video services from a shared, multitenant architecture and leverages cloud-native scalability to intelligently respond to shifting requirements.

Video services – such as CDNs (content delivery networks), cloud gaming, mixed reality and 3D rendering – can be delivered in a single cloud-native environment supported by both CPU and GPU-accelerated applications.

Operators no longer need to invest in dedicated resources for services that may not take off. Instead, they can build on a general-purpose architecture where services reside together and can leverage cloud-native scalability to automatically change or resize services to changing needs.

Intel is expanding its Agilex 7 FPGAs and eASIC N5X structure ASIC devices for cloud, communications and embedded applications.

As cloud service providers (CSPs) begin transitioning from 200G to 400G networks in 2023, with CSPs to follow suit in 2024, Intel Agilex 7 FPGA AGI 041 devices will enable next-generation 400G infrastructure acceleration solutions. AGI 041 devices deliver the right balance of capacity, power efficiency and performance for the 400G Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU) and networking solutions.

Intel provides the ability to optimize cost and power across customers’ 400G infrastructure solutions through Intel eASIC structured ASICs. For networking workloads, N5X080 devices are capable of reducing core power by up to 60 percent versus an FPGA, while reducing prototyping time by 50 percent compared to a traditional ASIC8.