Google Cloud and Intel agreed to develop telco cloud reference architectures and integrated solutions for communication service providers to accelerate 5G deployment across multiple network and edge locations.
The partnership is focused on:
- Accelerating the ability of communications service providers to deploy their virtualized radio access network (RAN) and open RAN solutions with next-generation infrastructure and hardware.
- Launching new lab environments to help communications service providers innovate for cloud native-based 5G networks.
- Making it easier for communications service providers to deliver business applications to the network edge.
“Communications service providers can adopt cloud-native technologies to harness the potential of 5G both as a connectivity solution and as a business services platform to deliver applications to the network edge,” said Shailesh Shukla, vice president and general manager of networking at Google Cloud. “Expanding on our work with the telecommunications industry, we are excited to work with Intel to help customers plan, test and deploy the technology and infrastructure needed to accelerate the delivery of cloud-native 5G for consumer and enterprise use cases.”
Intel said the collaboration marks another important step forward in its journey to help transform the 5G network with a software-defined, agile and scalable infrastructure.
“The next wave of network transformation is fueled by 5G and is driving a rapid transition to cloud-native technologies. As communications service providers build out their 5G network infrastructure, our efforts with Google and the broader ecosystem will help them deliver agile, scalable solutions for emerging 5G and edge use cases,” said Dan Rodriguez, corporate vice president and general manager of the Network Platforms Group at Intel.
Google Cloud said it is working closely with Intel in three main areas: accelerating the ability of communications service providers to deploy their Virtualized RAN (vRAN) and Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) solutions by providing next-generation infrastructure and hardware, launching new lab environments to help communications service providers innovate on cloud-native 5G, and making it easier for them to deliver business applications to the network edge.
Regarding 5G vRAN deployments, the architecture will leverage Google Cloud’s global infrastructure and capabilities alongside Intel’s FlexRAN reference software; Intel’s cloud-native Open Network Edge Service Software (OpenNESS) deployment model and best practices applicable to Anthos; Intel’s Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) and hardware infrastructure based on Intel Xeon processors; and New reference architecture and solutions to accelerate 5G vRAN with Anthos, an application platform.
In addition, Google Cloud will jointly launch a Network Functions Validation lab and collaborate with Intel to support vendors in testing, optimizing, and validating their core network functions running on Google Cloud’s Anthos for Telecom platform.
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