Wind River and Intel Collaborate on Leading 5G vRAN Solution for FlexRAN
August 25, 2021
News
Wind River announced that they are jointly developing a 5G vRAN solution with Intel. The solution 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). Per the company, 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 is designed to offer 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.
According to the company, 5G is driving a shift to cloud-native approaches and 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. According to a Heavy Reading study, operators have cited the following as typical key challenges for vRAN: systems integration (58% of responses), operational complexity of multi-vendor vRAN (46%), and edge cloud server performance (36%).1
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.
Wind River is participating in the 5G landscape, powering 5G RAN deployments, and Wind River Studio capabilities address operators’ challenges in deploying and managing a physically distributed, ultra-low-latency cloud-native infrastructure.
More information about Wind River Studio can be found at www.windriver.com/studio.
1 Heavy Reading, Survey Report: 5G Edge Cloud Infrastructure
Tiera Oliver is the assistant managing editor at Embedded Computing Design. She is responsible for web content editing, product news, and story development. She also manages, edits, and develops content for ECD podcasts, including Embedded Insiders.
She utilizes her expertise in journalism and content management to oversee editorial content, coordinate with editors, and ensure high-quality output across web, print, and multimedia platforms. She manages diverse projects, assists in the production of digital magazines, and hosts company podcasts by conducting in-depth interviews with industry leaders to deliver engaging and insightful discussions.
Tiera attended Northern Arizona University, where she received her bachelor's in journalism and political science. She was also a news reporter for the student-led newspaper, The Lumberjack.
