Ericsson and Intel have shacked up in a California research lab to show off joint work targeted at illustrating how cloud native principles can improve the performance and efficiency of cloud 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment.

The succinctly named Ericsson-Intel Tech Hub is based at Ericsson’s D-15 facility in Santa Clara, California. That facility houses the combined efforts of running Ericsson’s Cloud RAN platform on Intel technology to produce commercial products for communication service providers and hyperscalers offering cloud-based 5G RAN platforms.

Eric Parsons, VP and head of product development for Ericsson’s Cloud RAN unit, in an interview with SDxCentral said the collaboration is focused on areas like energy efficiency, system performance, and using cloud native functions (CNFs) to support new business opportunities. These efforts will be showcased as part of different demonstrations in the facility and via virtual engagements.

“The evolution of the cloud RAN to be deployable on a virtualized platform … there's so much to explore in terms of the different dimensions of that,” Parsons explained. “That exploration really benefits from a very active engagement with our partners and with our customers. So we expect to have our CSPs come in … we are showcasing each of the technology milestones as we're coming through with them and we expect to showcase them.”

Dan Rodriguez, corporate VP and GM for Intel’s Network Platforms Group, added that from a high level, this work will “drive virtualization into the radio access network, essentially looking to provide the cloud-like scale and agility commonly found in the world's data centers into the radio access network.”

“We're working together to explore technology not only in the near term, but also the over the three-to-five-year period to deliver solutions that communication service providers desire,” Rodriguez said. “You can think about how we're going to be working on not only performance, but greater sustainability in the network, in addition to partnering with communication service providers on how to deliver greater levels of automation and [total cost of ownership] in this portion of the network.”

The latest collaboration builds on past work between the two vendors. Parsons specifically noted the launch of Ericsson’s 5G Open RAN Lab in early 2021, and the vendor’s Cloud RAN mid-band push last June.

“Part of that announcement spoke to Ericsson’s and Intel’s collaboration relative to the multigenerational technology capabilities of the solution that Intel and Ericsson are bringing to market. And the next step in that is the establishment of a tech hub where we can really showcase that collaboration in an even greater manner and engage with the broader community as we're bringing these technology elements to realization,” Parsons said.

The collaboration also joins broader work toward expanding cloud principles to traditional telecommunication networks. Those network operators are obviously the biggest target of that work as they are generally the ones delivering services to the end user, but the supporting cast is an increasingly important part of that construct.

Both representatives explained that this initial work would be done between themselves, but that the process could potentially be open to other parties down the road.

“Cloud service providers will play a role and you can see that they get benefit from this partnership that Ericsson and Intel have as well,” Rodriguez said. “Ericsson and Intel will engage those folks as it makes sense, as they look to build out their own telecommunications base and support of the communication service providers.”