Japanese telecom company NTT Docomo is deploying Nvidia's GPUs to enhance its 5G network, reduce cost, and achieve energy efficiency.
The deployment is the result of a collaboration under the OREX (5G Open RAN service brand) with Docomo leveraging Nvidia’s Aerial vRAN stack, Nvidia converged accelerators, the Wind River cloud platform, and Fujitsu’s 5G vRAN software.
The telecom operator said that compared to the firm’s existing 5G network deployments, the solution reduces total costs by up to 30 percent, network design utilisation by up to 50 percent, and power consumption at base stations by up to 50 percent.
This is the world’s first GPU-accelerated 5G network, it added.
The platform combines the Nvidia Aerial vRAN stack for 5G, AI frameworks, accelerated compute infrastructure and long-term software support and maintenance.
NTT Docomo’s global head of Open RAN solutions, Sadayuki Abeta, said open RAN helps build next-generation 5G networks with flexibility and scalability.
According to the telecom operator, the commercial deployment in Japan is a first step in the vision of OREX, where members can commercially validate solutions and then promote them to other operators globally.
