DENVER – Silicon advancements might be the least heralded advantage telecom operators can glean from choosing to deploy and update their networking using cloud native principles, according to Sidd Chenumolu, VP of Dish Wireless’ Technology Department.

Speaking during a panel at this week’s ConnectX event in Denver, Chenumolu said that the rapid advancements in silicon performance allows telecom operators using cloud platforms to host their network services to significantly increase their pace of innovation.

Chenumolu explained that by decoupling the telecom and 5G applications from the underlying infrastructure, a carrier is able to more easily port those applications and services to a new, more efficient or more powerful computing platform.

“Imagine six months down the road [from that initial deployment], I still have the same application. Picking on AWS right now because they're a favorite partner … I go and say, you know what, Intel is coming up with a new computer model and I want to leverage that. It's a simple matter for me to write that application for different compute and it will work,” Chenumolu said. “I'm not only leveraging the application elasticity, but I'm also leveraging the growth and the speed of the silicon underlying, which has never been done before.”

In a traditional telecom network architecture, a carrier would have to go back to its equipment vendors, ask for new hardware, and then have to wait years for a new platform. For Dish, this silicon path was not acceptable.

“In the meantime, the exponential growth in silicon in the industry would have gone several nanometers lower,” Chenumolu added. “So that is a great benefit.”

Hyperscalers are constantly driving this innovation as they continually strive to lower their overall operational costs. Plus, they have enough scale and purchasing clout that gets the attention of chipmakers.

“They’re called hyperscalers because they can go to people like Intel and say, 'hey can you build me this,'” added Iain Gillott, president and founder of analyst firm iGR. “Telcos can’t do that. AT&T can go to Nokia or Ericsson and ask them to build these for them, but they will show them the invoice. Hyperscalers have silicon vendors building them, just pushing the next generation. … The stuff they are building is just staggering.”