Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Vodafone, and AMD have announced the successful demonstration of an end-to-end call utilizing the latest AMD processors for Open RAN technology, marking an industry first. This achievement showcases the companies’ technical prowess in enhancing the Open RAN ecosystem.
A robust Open RAN ecosystem enables operators to modernize mobile networks with greater flexibility, faster time-to-market, and superior performance.
The call, conducted at Samsung’s R&D lab in Korea, utilized Samsung’s O-RAN-compliant virtualized RAN software powered by AMD EPYC™ 8004 Series processors on Supermicro’s Telco/Edge servers, supported by Wind River Studio Container-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform. The goal was to validate optimized performance, energy efficiency, and interoperability among partner solutions.
Nadia Benabdallah, Network Strategy and Engineering Director at Vodafone Group, emphasized the significance of Open RAN innovation, stating, “Reaching this milestone with top industry partners like Samsung and AMD shows Vodafone’s dedication to delivering on the promise of Open RAN innovation.”
June Moon, Executive Vice President & Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, highlighted Samsung’s commitment to openness in mobile networks, stating, “The demo illustrates Samsung’s commitment to delivering the full potential of mobile networks by embracing openness.”
Kumaran Siva, corporate vice president, Strategic Market Development, AMD, emphasized the performance and energy efficiency of AMD EPYC 8004 Series CPUs in modern telco deployments.
Prakash Sangam, Founder & Principal of Tantra Analyst, praised the collaboration, stating, “This technical achievement between Samsung, Vodafone, and AMD validates the enhanced capabilities among all three companies’ solutions and supports new vendors in the evolving Open RAN ecosystem.”
The companies plan to demonstrate test results exceeding 1Gbps throughput for multi UE on multi-cell configuration at MWC 2024.
Since becoming strategic partners in June 2021, Samsung and Vodafone have been expanding their collaboration, including the kickoff of the largest Open RAN rollout in the U.K. in August 2023. Samsung also announced a new collaboration with AMD to advance 5G vRAN and virtualized Open RAN for network transformation.
Samsung’s strong ecosystem demonstrates its leadership in offering reliable and sustainable vRAN and Open RAN solutions, exceeding telco-grade performance. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung continues to drive the industry forward in advancing 5G networks with its comprehensive product portfolio.
