Fujitsu announced the launch of a new 5G vRAN solution combining Fujitsu’s virtualized CU (vCU) and virtualized DU (vDU) with NVIDIA’s GPU technology.
Fujitsu will start offering the solution to its telecom operator customers in March 2023, the telecom network maker said in a news statement. Fujitsu will showcase this solution at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2023) in Barcelona, Spain.
Fujitsu developed the new solution as part of the 5G Open RAN Ecosystem (OREC) project promoted by NTT Docomo, which also supported performance verification and evaluation tests of the new solution.
The solution applies NVIDIA’s GPU processing engine NVIDIA A100X to the physical layer processing at the base station. The solution enables parallel processing of virtualized base stations and edge applications on GPU hardware resources in a configuration that allows each function to be built on the same server.
Fujitsu said the solution further offers improved radio unit (RU) capacity and processing power, provides a high-quality communications environment, and is able to handle high-load data processing along with future improvements in antenna technologies.
Fujitsu believes the introduction of vRAN systems – software-based base stations that do not require dedicated hardware – is gaining increasing attention as they enable flexible equipment procurement and cost reduction.
Fujitsu combined its vRAN technology launched in March 2022 with NVIDIA’s GPU processing engine A100X, NVIDIA’s Aerial SDK for base station processing, and an AI framework developed by NVIDIA to offer a solution that can be deployed for range of use cases from carriers to enterprise customers.
“The industry is moving towards vRAN that can be scaled for more flexible, extendable, and intelligent Open RAN. We are committed to transforming the industry and accelerating wireless services around the world together with great OREC partners such as Fujitsu and NVIDIA,” Sadayuki Abeta, Global Head of Open RAN Solutions, NTT DOCOMO & OREC evangelist, said.
“NVIDIA is collaborating with NTT DOCOMO, Fujitsu and industry ecosystem partners to realize the goal of software defined 5G vRAN and edge AI applications in an all-in-one, GPU accelerated, system,” said Ronnie Vasistha, Senior Vice President, Telecom, NVIDIA.
“Fujitsu is delivering virtualized 5G base station software and multi-access edge computing (MEC) powered by AI and XR applications in an all-in-one configuration on the same computing resources, offering customers ultra-low latency services, highly optimized TCO and green performance,” Masaki Taniguchi, Senior Vice President, Mobile System Business Unit, Fujitsu, said.
