Google Cloud and Intel plan to collaborate on multiple fronts to develop cloud-native 5G services and technology for operators, enterprises, and the growing pool of vendors involved in mobile networks.

The intended outcomes of the expanded partnership between the two tech giants include blueprints of use cases that can be replicated by network operators and enterprises at the edge, a pre-integrated platform for cloud-native network functions, and increased collaboration with dozens of software vendors for validation and testing. 

The companies also plan to combine areas of respective strengths to further develop services and deployment models for virtualized radio access networks (vRAN). Google’s contribution will largely flow from its massive cloud business, specifically its Anthos for Telecom platform, while Intel will contribute its FlexRAN reference software and its cloud-native Open Network Edge Service Software (OpenNESS) deployment model.

“We are linking [Google’s Anthos for Telecom and Intel’s OpenNESS] together so that the telecom service providers, the communications service providers, have an open platform that can deliver cloud capabilities across multiple environments in the Google Cloud, in the telecom cloud, or a telecom edge location, or all the way to an enterprise edge location,” Shailesh Shukla, VP and GM of networking at Google Cloud, told SDxCentral. 

Intel’s FlexRAN software plays a prominent role in its 5G strategy and it’s reflected as such in partnerships of a similar scope with VMware, Red Hat, Verizon, Dish, and other operators and vendors.

Anthos is Google’s fully managed, Kubernetes-based platform that allows users to manage their data and applications in an on-premises environment or across cloud platforms from rivals like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Anthos for Telecom is an extension of that platform for delivering network-centric workloads to the edge on Google Cloud.

Integration, validation, and testing of network functions and use cases are among the biggest hurdles facing operators as they seek to disaggregate hardware from software and make greater use of cloud-native network functions from multiple vendors to virtualize their respective 5G networks. 

Delivering a RAN platform on cloud-native infrastructure is one of many goals that Intel and Google share, Dan Rodriguez, corporate VP and GM at Intel’s Network Platforms Group, told SDxCentral.

“For us, being a participant in the evolution of the radio network to be much more virtualized, much more cloud native, and much more open is a strategic objective,” Shukla said.

Google and Intel plan to establish multiple labs for this broad effort, this first of which is already up and running at an Intel facility in New Mexico. The companies said they will also open a lab dedicated to validating network functions with multiple vendors, and create blueprints for edge applications that could serve unique functions for specific industries like industrial manufacturing, retail, and entertainment.

5G is going to be an accelerant that fuels a more software defined, agile, and scalable infrastructure for mobile network operators, Rodriguez said. “We all know that communications service providers do face challenges as they really seek to implement more of a cloud-native based 5G network.”

Successfully traversing that journey requires operators to have the right tools and capabilities to deliver more automated infrastructure, he said. 

“Google is bringing their Anthos platform to bear as well as additional technologies in combination with these Intel cloud technologies to develop a robust overall cloud-native platform, and then we work with the ecosystem to complete a blueprint for the customer,” Rodriguez explained. 

The companies intend to carry the vision through multiple layers of complexity and deliver pre-integrated and tested use cases that can be deployed by operators or enterprises in a more pre-validated manner, Shukla said.

“I think fundamentally operators want this type of an arrangement. … The number of use cases are myriad, [and] which one is going to be the likely killer use case by vertical is not something that is known today,” he said. 

“This is where the platform approach is important because it’s not as if you’re going to build top to bottom for one use case,” Shukla added. “You build a platform, you experiment by bringing out new innovative things quickly to market and then adapt based on that.”

The edge requires a flexible platform that can run a multitude of different services that can be adapted upon quickly, Rodriguez said. Service providers will see that Google and Intel are collaborating across these multiple layers upfront, so “when they want to deploy a platform with our two technologies and our two companies, we’re going to make it much more easy for them to get to market,” Rodriguez said.

The companies expect the first wave of blueprints and validated use cases from this partnership to be available in the summer.