Samsung Electronics has revealed new features of virtualized RAN (vRAN) to improve performance and increase power savings.
Samsung plans to launch its new vRAN capabilities to global operators, beginning its rollout in North America in the first half of 2023.

The advanced vRAN software’s new features include advanced capabilities that will help pave the path towards the next phase of network virtualization, including features that increase bandwidth support of Massive MIMO radios, analyze hourly traffic patterns to optimize network operating conditions, and automate networks with sleep mode to save energy consumption.

“While Samsung’s 5G vRAN has proven its performance by delivering results on par with traditional hardware-based equipment in commercial networks, we are moving fast into the next phase of vRAN software development — Samsung’s vRAN 3.0,” said Ji-Yun Seol, Vice President, Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

With a software upgrade, Samsung’s vRAN will be equipped with the ability to provide 3 Cell configuration with 200MHz of bandwidth support using its 64T64R Massive MIMO radios. This is more than triple the radio bandwidth support when compared to its previous generation software, capable of supporting an operator’s entire mid-band 5G spectrum holdings.

Samsung is incorporating a modem algorithm optimization approach to its development roadmap. Unlike a hardware-centric approach, modem algorithm optimization enables operators to receive software tailored to their needs, with only the required features and configurations, allowing for an optimized and efficient use of COTS servers.

Available on Samsung’s vRAN software, this feature reduces power consumption by automatically putting the CPU in “sleep mode” — or turning off unused CPU Cores — during periods of low data traffic. When capacity demand increases again, CPU Cores exit sleep mode.

This feature of Samsung’s vRAN software assigns a number of CPU Cores at cell setup proportional to the number of active cells. Unassigned or unused CPU Cores are set to idle mode to reduce power consumption and are activated when capacity demand increases.

Energy Saving Feature Orchestrator (ESFO) is an orchestration tool that manages multiple energy saving features in one platform, optimizing efficiency with no service interruption. ESFO automatically analyzes hourly traffic patterns and optimizes the operating conditions of each Energy Saving feature, per sector and time zone.