Wind River is jointly developing a 5G vRAN solution with Intel that integrates Intel FlexRAN reference software for systems fueled by 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with built-in AI acceleration, and also features Intel Ethernet 800 Network Adapters and the Intel vRAN Dedicated Accelerator ACC100 in concert with Wind River Studio.
The collaboration will further expand on these innovations by optimizing new capabilities delivered with future next generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Sapphire Rapids). The joint solution builds on work by Intel and Wind River on Verizon’s 5G milestone to complete the world’s first end-to-end fully virtualized 5G data session.
Wind River Studio provides a cloud-native platform for the development, deployment, operations, and servicing of mission-critical intelligent systems. Its cloud infrastructure capabilities include a fully cloud-native, Kubernetes container-based architecture based on the StarlingX open source project for the deployment and management of distributed edge networks at scale. With an out-of-the-box, optimized, ultra-low-latency, small-footprint infrastructure, Studio offers operators the flexibility to grow new business and further improve total cost of ownership. Intel FlexRAN is a vRAN reference implementation for virtualized cloud-enabled radio access networks.
With 5G driving a shift to cloud-native approaches, operators are pursuing vRAN for greater agility. They are optimistic about the potential of vRAN as an anchor tenant for far-edge cloud and eager to move beyond past implementation challenges.
Prospective customers and vRAN solution providers will be able to review evaluation packages consisting of Intel FlexRAN reference software pre-integrated with Wind River Studio to simplify and accelerate customer trials and deployments of 5G vRAN. This offering expands upon the recently introduced Intel Select Solutions for Virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) on Wind River Studio.
Kevin Dallas, president and CEO at Wind River
As 5G opens up new opportunities across industries, there will be an increasing need to put greater intelligence and compute to the edges of the network, where new use cases evolve and thrive. As such, operators must adopt a low-latency far-edge cloud architecture to enable these new use cases in an intelligent, AI-first world.
Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate vice president and general manager, Network Platforms Group
Working closely with innovators like Wind River, we offer operators a path to fast-track successful vRAN deployments with validated hardware and software that can accelerate their 5G objectives.
