Open RAN is continuing its steady march forward, reflecting the ongoing telco transformation to software-based RAN architectures that are scalable, flexible and open. As an industry, we’ve seen definitive progress this year and a number of important advancements. Among other developments, Vodafone began its rollout of commercial Open RAN in Romania, and earlier this year, Telus announced its plans to build Canada’s first 5G virtualized RAN, Open RAN network, which they are executing on.
At Intel, we’ve been firmly committed to the telco market for more than a decade. By adapting the best of cloud technologies for telecom and collaborating with partners, Intel has worked side-by-side with operators to drive virtualization in the 5G network core, and now virtualization in radio access networks. Throughout this time, we’ve always known that to be successful, operators need high-performance, cost-optimized products that help them fulfill their long-term business goals.
Silicon innovation is the critical linchpin to meeting operators’ network performance and cost-of-ownership requirements. Our 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost — the industry’s first vRAN processor with fully integrated acceleration — has seen steady adoption since coming to market earlier this year, with deployment commitments from AT&T, Telus, Verizon, Vodafone and other tier-1 operators.
Building on this success, our Intel® Xeon® 6 SoC, previously codenamed Granite Rapids–D, will deliver significant performance and power efficiency gains. Available in 2025, these processors boast more than twice the core count of our current 4th Gen Xeon processor, along with architectural enhancements to increase vRAN capacity. It offers integrated Intel vRAN Boost acceleration and integrated Intel Ethernet, which help boost performance, security and manageability. Intel will also launch a new family of Ethernet E830 Controllers and Network Adapters products in 2025 that feature 200 Gbps max data rate, Precision Time Management (PTM), and other precise time synchronization capabilities. This new family of Ethernet Controllers and Network Adapters, paired with the integrated Intel Ethernet, will enable the flexibility needed to address varying vRAN connectivity requirements around the world.
The Intel Xeon 6 SoC’s combination of optimized architecture and capacity gain will help network operators dramatically reduce their server footprint, enabling the majority of site configurations that require two or more servers to run on just a single vRAN server. This consolidation can significantly cut deployment capital expense compared to previous platforms, which often have required multiple servers per site. Increased performance-per-watt further enhances this benefit with energy savings to reduce ongoing operating expense.
AI will also play a major role in meeting operators’ RAN business goals and their demanding energy efficiency requirements. By enabling intelligent network optimization, predictive maintenance, and resource allocation, AI can help enhance RAN efficiency, reduce power consumption, and generate new revenue opportunities. Previously this year, we made it easier for operators to begin implementing AI in RAN by offering early availability of the Intel vRAN AI Development Kit. As a next step toward making AI ubiquitous in RAN, we recently demonstrated Intel AI models integrated with Mavenir’s commercial Open RAN software.
Our newest processor is built for AI performance in RAN environments. Intel Xeon 6 SoC boasts powerful integrated AI acceleration with Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) and Intel® Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX). Intel AMX provides the ability to store more data in each core and compute larger matrices in a single operation, thus providing a leap in deep learning inference and training performance. This CPU-based acceleration can optimize power and resource utilization efficiencies, as well as minimize latency by not requiring additional hardware components to process AI inference workloads.
With all these features, Intel Xeon 6 SoCs will set a new highwater mark in vRAN performance-per-watt, compact design, and advanced AI capabilities. Intel offers a multi-generation roadmap of processor, Ethernet and software products to ensure operators’ long-term success. We’ll have lots more to say about Intel Xeon 6 SoCs and our other portfolio products in the coming months.
To learn more about the benefits of AI in RAN, check out our ebook, “Unleashing the Potential of AI in the RAN.”
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Vice President Network & Edge Group
General Manager Wireless Access Network Division.
Cristina Rodriguez is vice president in the Network & Edge Group, general manager of the group's Wireless Access Network Division (WAND), and general manager of the Austin Design Center at Intel Corporation. She leads Intel’s efforts to provide innovative wireless access solutions in both traditional and cloud native networks, enabling the RAN of the future by bringing together 5G, the build out of the Edge and Artificial Intelligence. Rodriguez has full PnL ownership, responsible for strategy and business plans, technical product marketing, roadmaps, product definition, forecasting, customer relationships, investment decisions and GTM.
Rodriguez joined Intel in 2014 with the acquisition of LSI Corp.'s Axxia Networking Business from Avago Technologies Ltd., where she led and carried out software strategy. In her first Intel role, Rodriguez managed the division's worldwide software engineering and product development efforts. She also led the successful integration of the Axxia team into Intel and aligned the team's focus with Intel's networking business. Her team has been recognized multiple times with Intel’s highest honor, the Intel Achievement Award, for their contribution to the company’s 5G leadership efforts.
Before her tenure at LSI and Avago, Rodriguez spent seven years holding leadership roles in software development at Agere Systems Inc. and its parent company, Lucent Technologies Inc. Earlier in her career, she worked at Zilog Inc. and at two startup ventures.
Rodriguez earned her bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría in Havana, Cuba; her master's degree in computer science from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Madrid, Spain; and completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University. Rodriguez is also a member of the Intel Latinx Leadership Council and was recognized as one of HiTEC’s “100 Most Influential Hispanic Leaders in Technology” in 2021 and 2022.